Sachin Tendulkar Announces Retirement from One-Day Cricket
New Delhi, Dec 23 (IANS): India batting great Sachin Tendulkar Sunday closed a major chapter of his illustrious career by announcing his retirement from one-day cricket. He will continue to play in Tests.
Tendulkar's decision following days of speculation came moments before the selectors announced Team India for the limited overs series against Pakistan starting Dec 25.
Battling with form, Tendulkar's move was on expected lines. Since the 2011 World Cup, the 39-year-old has scored only 315 runs from 10 games.
Yet his record in ODIs will be hard to beat.
He has played 463 ODIs, scored 18,426 runs and made 49 centuries -- each figure a world record. He is also the first cricketer to hit a double-century in ODIs -- 200 against South Africa at Gwalior in 2010.
Tendulkar conveyed his decision to retire from the 50-over format to Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president N. Srinivasan.
"I have decided to retire from One-Day format. I feel blessed to have fulfilled the dream of being part of a World Cup-wining Indian team," said Tendulkar, 39, in a statement.
He said it was high time for the team to prepare to defend its world title.
"The preparatory process to defend the World Cup in 2015 should begin early and in right earnest. I would like to wish the team all the very best for the future. I am eternally grateful to all my well wishers for their unconditional support and love over the years," he said.
Tendulkar's decision ahead of a crucial series against Pakistan, which marks the resumption of bilateral cricketing ties disrupted after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, made his teammates emotional.
Cancer survivor Yuvraj Singh wrote on Twitter: "It is an emotional time! Letting Sachin go from one dayers! 18 thousand plus runs. Your jaw drops when you see those records, master you will always live in my heart and fellow Indians! The pride of our country, I salute to you for your contribution to Indian cricket."
His contemporary Sourav Ganguly expected Tendukar to play against Pakistan.
"I felt that he would play the series against Pakistan. But it is his decision and I think it is the right one," said his contemporary and former India captain Sourav Ganguly.
"There was a doubt on whether he would play ODI cricket or not. But I am not surprised by his decision. He has done what he thought was right," he added.
For BCCI, the news did not come as a shock.
Ratnakar Shetty, chief administrative officer of the BCCI, said: "He was waiting for the right and today he took the decision. The BCCI respects his decision."
Tendulkar's last ODI appearance was against Pakistan in Dhaka during the Asia Cup where he made a match-winning half-century.
During the Asia Cup, he also completed a century of centuries (49 in ODIs and 51 in Tests).
Tendulkar made his ODI debut in 1989 in Gujranwala, Pakistan, scoring a duck in the game.
It took him nine ODIs to get his maiden ODI half-century, 53, against Sri Lanka in Pune in 1990.
Tendulkar took the world by storm when he was asked to open the innings against New Zealand in Auckland in 1994. He smashed 82 off 49 balls.
Tendulkar had to wait 79 ODIs for his first three-figure score in ODIs -- 110 against Australia in Colombo, 1994.
Since then he has re-written record books.
Tendulkar has scored most of his runs against Sri Lanka (3,113) and Australia (3,077). His back-to-back hundreds against Australia in a triangular tournament in 1998 at Sharjah mesmerized his fans.
He was also the highest run-getter in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.
Profile: Sachin Tendulkar - Man who became god
It did not take much for the cricket pundits to spot a genius in Sachin Tendulkar after he made his international debut in a Test match in Karachi Nov 15, 1989. He was 16 then. More than two decades later, he has gone on to become one of the greatest batsman the world will ever see.
Twenty-three years, one month, and eight days from his debut, the five-feet-five-inch cricketing genius has called time on a glittering one-day career. With 18,426 runs from 463 matches at an average of 44.83, Tendulkar has most batting records under his belt in the 50-over format as also in Tests.
He holds the record for the maximum number of appearances and is the highest run-getter and century-maker in both versions. He has turned out in six World Cups at a stretch, playing a key role in winning the title in 2011 and finishing runners-up in 2003.
The 'Liitle Master', as he is often called, is the only man to hit 100 centuries - 51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs - and also the first man to score a double-century in the 50-over format.
However, it was not all smooth sailing for the champion batsman in his initial ODIs. It took him all of five years and 78 matches to score his maiden hundred.
But experts never lost faith in him. Another Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar commented that once he gets his first one, there will be no stopping him. Finally the big day came Sep 9, 1994, when Tendulkar struck a blazing 110 against Australia in Colombo.
The jinx broken, Tendulkar celebrated with two more three-figure knocks in the next two months. From then on, there was no looking back.
The memories of Tendulkar tearing into one of the greatest spinners of all-time, Shane Warne, at Sharjah, will forever be etched in the minds of cricket fans. In that tournament, he hit two back-to-back centuries (143; 134) against Australia -- the first helped India qualify for the final based on a better Net Run Rate and the second, in the finals -- which was played on Tendulkar's 25th birthday, helped India beat Australia to win the title.
After the tournament, Warne claimed that he had "nightmares" at the thought of bowling to Tendulkar after being dominated by him.
An abiding image of Tendulkar would be the hundred he scored in the 1999 World Cup match at Bristol. Ramesh Tendulkar, a novelist and professor, who had deeply inculcated in his son the virtues of modesty and humility, died when India were in the midst of the Cup campaign.
Tendulkar flew home to attend his father's last rites, and returned to the tournament, beating the Kenyan bowlers to pulp scoring 140 off 101 balls, and dedicated his innings to his father. On completing the hundred, Tendulkar looked at the sky, praying for his father, and has done likewise after reaching every milestone of his glittering career since then.
With the left-handed Sourav Ganguly, Tendulkar formed the greatest opening partnership in limited overs cricket, and the pair holds the world record for the most number of runs - 6609 in 136 matches that includes 21 century and 23 half-century stands. In 40 other matches, batting together but not as openers, the duo partnered another 1668 runs, taking their total aggregate partnership to 8277.
"These were the moments of my career I always cherish. My batting with Sachin in one-day internationals at the top was a huge learning experience," Ganguly once said.
But the greatest adulation for the Mumbaikar came from the legendary Don Bradman - considered the greatest batsman of all times. Sir Don once asked his wife to take a look at the Indian as he felt Tendulkar played like him.
It was Tendulkar's technique, compactness, and shot production that endeared him most to the Aussie, according to Roland Perry, who authored the book 'Don's Best'.
But in a revelation that even the 'god of cricket' has his human frailties, it took Tendulkar 370 days to get over an agonising century-less period after the 99th international hundred he got March 12, 2011 facing South Africa in Nagpur during the World Cup.
In recognition for the laurels he brought to the country, Tendulkar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha as an eminent personality by then president Pratibha Patil in April this year - the first sports personality to get the honour.
Mentored in his early cricketing days by his elder brother Ajit, Sachin later honed his skills under celebrated coach Ramakant Achrekar.
Tendulkar's talent stood out since his school days, and partnered by his friend Vinod Kambli the duo made the cricketing circles sit up and take notice after an unbroken 664-run stand in a Lord Harris Shield international school game in 1988.
The rest as they say is history.