The tears said it all

Mumbai: In an emotional farewell, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar thanks friends, fans & family. "Every time I lifted my bat, it was for my father," he said. It's hard to believe my wonderful journey is coming to an end, my life between 22 yards for 24 years has come to an end.

I know when MS presented the 200th Test cap, I had a message to the team -- I said we are all so proud to be representing the nation. I hope to continue to serve the nation with dignity.

I want to thank my fans from the bottom of my heart. "Sachin, Sachin" will reverberate in my ears till I stop breathing.

“Sachin without cricket? I can imagine cricket without Sachin but I can't imagine Sachin without cricket,“ said Anjali Tendulkar. In one of her rare appearances live on sports television from the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, she summed up succinctly her feelings. A whole nation would, however, be wondering what cricket would be like without Sachin after enjoying the Saturday on which the child prodigy who went on to dominate international cricket for 24 years took his final bow from the game.

While she wiped away tears from her eyes hidden by huge shades, her husband coped better with his emotions in the course of his long 'Oscar' speech in which he thanked a whole load of people, including, most of all, his fans who responded at once with a loud and long chorus of 'Sachinnnnnnnn Sachin', for the last time at a cricket ground after he had said that the chant “would reverberate in my ears all my life and until I breathe.“

Sachin, who too had wiped a tear from his eye when running out of the arena after the Indian win, leaves international cricket with a mountain of a record of 664 matches, 34,357 runs, 164 fifties and 100 hundreds. Some of the records Sachin picked up from “My life of 22 yards for 24 years,“ as he described his total involvement with the game, may never be broken. “It's difficult to talk but I will manage,“ he said and then went on to deliver the most stirring and longest impromptu speech of his life.

Only after touching the ground and kissing it in the course of the team's lap of honour after the ceremonies did the enormity of leaving the game hit Sachin as he broke into tears and wept like a baby Living up to great expectations had been his eternal challenge right from the age of 11 at which he picked up a bat. Having met expectations so well for so long he could not possibly fail in the theatrical setting of a sports arena that was hanging on to his every word that was also carried live to over 65 countries. “Goodbye“ was the last word he uttered before walking into the sunset of his cricket career. Prof. C.N.R. Rao, the chairman of the PM's Science Advisory Council, on Saturday became only the second Indian scientist to be honoured with the 'Bharat Ratna', after Sir C.V. Raman in 1954, the very first year the award was presented. Prof. Rao, the most internationally cited Indian scientist, is also only the third Kannadiga -after Sir M. Visvesvarayya and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi -to win the award.