"A monster in the making" - This was the first article on Sachin which appeared in 1988. The article was penned by Harsha Bhogle. 24 years later, the monster has retired. The monster has retired today.
Innumerable articles have been written in each and every magazine , identifying each and every one as the next Sachin tendulkar.However, after 24 years, Only one Sachin tendulkar remains.
Rarely does a sporstman become bigger than the sport. Rarely does that sportsman remains a clean icon all his sporting career. Rarely does that sportsman doesn't endorse any liquor or tobacco brands. Rarely does all these things happen in the world's most chaotic democracy .Rarely Ever!
The BCCI in one way or other owes its present riches to him. He is to be credited for bringing Indian cricket out of the match-fixing fiasco along with Ganguly & co.
He has scored 18k ODI runs, an almost impossible feat and we can be pretty sure it will never be broken.
But what about his test record of 16k runs?
It surely is under threat. To surpass 16k runs, you need to play close to 200 tests at an average of around 53. Playing 200 tests requires minimum 15 years of international cricket . No indian cricketer of current generation can come across this record.
The only person who can come close to this feat is Alastair Cook. He has already played 97 tests scoring 7801 runs- almost an exact half of Sachin's test runs.
Cricket may get another star but in a way, Sachin is a clean hero and true inspiration for the current generation. Somehow, the Kohli's and the Dhoni's of the world doesn't even come close to the image of a clean hero.
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