The significance of Sachin Tendulkar’s announcement that he will retire from all forms of cricket after the upcoming two-match series against the West Indies has not been lost on Manchester cricket fans.
The 40-year-old, nicknamed the Little Master, is the highest scorer in both tests and one-day internationals with 15,837 runs in 198 Tests and 18,426 runs in 463 ODIs.
He has also scored 51 Tests centuries, the first of which came in a match against England at Old Trafford 23 years ago.
It turned out to be an extraordinary match. Five other batsmen had scored centuries in the game, before the cherubic 17-year-old arrived at the crease with India at 109-4 having been set 408 to win.
Tendulkar set about his task with a maturity and determination that his more experienced teammates seemed to lack as he took the English bowling to task.
He rode his luck when he was dropped on 10 but did not look back even as wickets dropped at the other end.
His 5ft 5in frame looked dwarfed by an England bowling attack that included Devon Malcolm and Angus Fraser but his precocious talent was all too evident.
He batted for 224 minutes and 189 deliveries for an unbeaten 119 that helped India claim a famous draw from a match they could easily have lost.
Experts agree that the innings, in only his ninth test, was the finest of the match and changed Indian cricket forever. It made him the most famous cricketer in the cricket-mad country since Sunil Gavaskar in the 1970s and 80s.
Image courtesy of ABP News via YouTube, with thanks.
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