This Day That Year: Sachin Tendulkar bids farewell on 24-year career at Wankhede
Mumbai: Exactly four years back to the day, Team India’s ‘Master Blaster’ Sachin Tendulkar took the field for one final time in a Test match against West Indies in his home ground at the Wankhede Stadium here.
It was a career which spanned exactly 24 years, right from making his debut against Pakistan on November 15, 1989 until his innings of 74 against the Caribbean at his home ground, which helped in India sealing the two-match Test series 2-0.
In his 200th Test here, Sachin created history by becoming the first Indian cricketer to play as many matches in the longest format.
Following the conclusion of the Test match, Sachin walked up to the 22-yards pitch, where he took blessing from the Almighty for his illustrious career.
Following this, Sachin was ready to give his farewell speech, with the presence of thousands of fans still present at the ground, his teammates and support staff, and also his family. The speech almost lasted for about half an hour.
A 100 international centuries, and 164 half-centuries across all formats, including a double hundred against South Africa in 2010, Sachin Tendulkar’s career was filled with numerous records and achievements. Winning the Cricket World Cup was a dream for ‘God of cricket’ and it did come true on April 2, 2011 as MS Dhoni and co lifted the trophy here by beating Sri Lanka.
Sachin has also played under a number of captains, including Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly. In fact, Tendulkar was also a captain for India once. However, his stint as the skipper did not last long, having won just four of 25 Test matches, with 12 of them being drawn.
Despite having played 200 Tests and 463 ODIs, Sachin has played just one T20 for India, with the lone match coming against South Africa in 2006, the year before the inaugural ICC World Twenty20. However, lack of experience in the shortest format of the game did not stop him from representing his home side Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League, and also being a part of the team which lifted the trophy in 2013, which in fact was his last IPL season.
Scoring over 30,000 runs across all formats, Tendulkar’s career would have arguably been one of the best careers a cricketer would have had, despite many ups and downs.
