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     Tthanks Pilla Bewarse Username: Tthanks Post Number: 506 Registered: 01-2013 Posted From: 171.161.160.10 Rating: N/A |
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/14/sport/indias-sachin-tendulkar-enters-cricket-p antheon/ Sachin Tendulkar: India's 'Little Master' thrills fans in final Test In boxing it's Muhammad Ali, in soccer it's Brazil's Pele and in basketball it's Michael Jordan, but this week India, already a country with no shortage of deities, will place batting great Sachin Tendulkar in the pantheon of cricketing legends. On Thursday the 40-year-old began his world-record 200th and final Test match -- the longest form of the game, which can last up to five days -- in his hometown of Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium, in a series that could have been sold out more than 10 times over. He walked onto the pitch to a standing ovation from the capacity crowd, with the opposing West Indies team forming a guard of honor as he came out to bat. "The Little Master" gave fans plenty to cheer about as he reached 38 not out at the end of the first day's play, hitting six boundaries from 73 balls faced. It lifted India to 157-2 at stumps, a deficit of just 25 runs with eight first-innings wickets remaining. Sachin Tendulkar makes cricket history India's 'God of cricket' popularity Imran Khan says Tendulkar should retire This could be Tendulkar's final chance at the batting crease, as the tourists -- who lost the first Test of the two-match series by an innings and 51 runs -- capitulated again earlier Thursday, making just 182 as Indian spin bowler Pragyan Ojha took five wickets. A similar performance in the second innings could deny Tendulkar another turn at bat. He is not just a sports star, but also an icon in a country of more than 1.2 billion people. His fans often wave placards at matches that read, "Cricket is my religion and Sachin is my God." Himself a devout Hindu, the diminutive 5-feet 5-inch all-rounder was well-known throughout his career as a modest superstar who never lost his cool either at the batting crease or in front of the cameras and fans. READ: Indian cricket legend endulkar announces retirement Former India captain Rahul Dravid told CNN that Tendulkar would be remembered as "the benchmark" against which all the nation's cricketers measured themselves. In a game where 100 runs -- or a century -- is regarded as the high-water mark of batting achievement in any match at any level, Tendulkar last year reached 100 hundreds at international level and now holds almost all coveted batting records except for cricket legend Don Bradman's career average of 99.94 runs. Even "The Don" as he is known in Australia -- the cricketing prodigy of the 1930s and '40s who was still alive when Tendulkar made his Test debut in 1989 -- once remarked on the Little Master's prodigious talent. "I saw him playing on the television and I was very, very struck by his technique. I asked my wife to come and have a look at him. Because, I said, I never saw myself play, but I feel that this feller is playing much the same as I used to play ... It was just his compactness, his stroke production, his technique, it all seemed to gel as far as I was concerned," Bradman told reporters. Throughout a stellar career, Tendulkar has scored 15,847 runs in 199 Test matches at an average of 53.71 each innings, and 18,426 runs in 463 one-day international matches at 44.83 each time at bat. Shane Warne -- the famous Australian leg spin bowler and another of Bradman's favorite contemporary cricketers -- rated him the greatest player of the modern game. "Sachin Tendulkar is, in my time, the best player without a doubt -- daylight second, Brian Lara third," said Warne, who said of the Indian that it was "a pleasure bowling to him." Sachin Tendulkar is, in my time, the best player without a doubt - daylight second, Brian Lara third Shane Warne Australian cricket commentator Gideon Haigh said Tendulkar was well-known for his grace under pressure in a sport better known in modern times for its towering egos. "Certainly, he has left a strong imprint on his cricket contemporaries," Haigh wrote in The Australian newspaper. "They knew him, for example, for never throwing his bat after a dismissal; he would sit down in the dressing room, reflect, but never brood." In India, his popularity has reached beyond cricket's stadiums and -- with a career unsullied by controversy or scandal -- he has become a marketer's dream. With a net worth of about $160 million from endorsements, property and cricket earnings, according to Singapore-based Wealth X, Tendulkar is cricket's richest player and the country's biggest icon. Walk into any shopping mall in India, and there's a good chance you will see Tendulkar on a poster or a billboard. He endorses 17 products including Canon, Visa and Adidas. Canon has spent $50 million on advertising over the past five years -- and half of that on Tendulkar alone. "It has worked phenomenally," Canon India's senior vice president Alok Bharadwaj told CNN. "We notice that the awareness of our brand is improving and since people respect him a lot there's almost a subtle admission that if Sachin is saying it, then it has to be true." Tendulkar is known to be choosey about what he endorses and will not, for instance, put his name to alcohol, despite large offers from corporations Despite his commercial success, the "Little Master" says it's always been about the cricket. "The fact was that it was all happening because of cricket and my focus always stayed on cricket, the rest of these things happened around cricket and even today cricket is the focal point, cricket is the ultimate thing for me ... it's that simple," he told CNN in an interview in 2008 |