Doyen of the modern cricketing world

A little after 2 30pm on October 17, the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali was engulfed in fireworks as a country of a billion and more people celebrated yet another record by Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the best batsman in the modern era.

When Tendulkar glided a Peter Siddle delivery and ran three runs on the first day of the second Test match between India and Australia in Mohali, he overtook West Indian batting legend Brian Lara to become the highest run scorer in the history of Test matches. As soon as Tendulkar took the third run, the spectators at Mohali stood as one to applaud the ‘Liitle Master’ as the Australian players then took the opportunity to congratulate India’s finest batsman.



Tendulkar had taken quite a while to overtake Lara, and the relief was evident on his face as he looked up to the skies and took a moment to savour the historic feat before he got back to the business of focussing on the match to rescue India after the home team lost three quick wickets before the tea session on the first day. The most interesting aspect of Tendulkar’s innings in Mohali on October 17 was the ease with which he played his shots after getting the record.



Tendulkar, who scored 88 in India’s first innings total of 469 all out at Mohali, also became the first batsman to score 12,000 runs in Test cricket, and also featured in a crucial partnership with Sourav Ganguly which went a long way to help his team reach the total and put pressure on Australia. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Tendulkar after he got the record to the time he was dismissed took everyone, including himself back in time, as he played some trademark shots with the confidence of old. And, though he was unable to score his 40th Test century, Tendulkar’s form certainly augurs well for India, but is bad news for the Aussies as well as the other international teams.



Tendulkar has now got all the major batting records in international cricket – most runs in Test and one-day cricket as well as the most number of centuries in those two formats of the game. Apart from the number of runs he has scored, Tendulkar has been a colossus in the international cricketing arena as he has optimised his inherent talent to win the respect of not only fans and cricketing experts, but also his peers. It is not easy to shoulder the burden of the expectations of a billion plus people, but Tendulkar has done that admirably more often than not in the last 19 years.



Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar , born April 24, 1973 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, is an Indian cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. In 2002, Wisden ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time next only to Sir Donald Bradman, and the second greatest one-day international batsman of all time next only to Sir Viv Richards.


September 2007, Shane Warne, the world-record breaking Australian leg spinner, rated Sachin Tendulkar as the greatest player he has played with or against. Sachin Tendulkar was the only player of the current generation to be included in Bradman's Eleven, the dream team of Sir Donald Bradman, published in his biography . He is sometimes referred to as the Little Master or the Master Blaster.