Before retiring from international cricket and after playing his last Test also his 200th against the West Indies on 16 November 2013, Everyone considered that his glory might fade way from public perception. Unlike some of his contemporaries from the Indian team, Tendulkar didn’t appear to have interests beyond cricket. He was, and still is, the highest run-scorer in ODI history, having registered a total of 18,426, at an average of 44.83.

Tendulkar, along with the West Indies’ Brian Lara, entertained the sport’s fans with his batting prowess through much of the 1990s and 2000s. And though his powers waned slightly, his zeal for the game and his fans’ enthusiasm for him did not. The announcement, which was expected, marks the end of an era for Indian cricket.

“All my life, I have had a dream of playing cricket for India,” Tendulkar said. “I have been living this dream every day for the last 24 years. It’s hard for me to imagine a life without playing cricket because it’s all I have ever done since I was 11 years old.”

said Sachin after retirement.

Career Achievements

Tendulkar established his greatness early. Blessed with the keenest of cricket minds, and driven by a loathing for defeat, he was only 16 when he made his Test debut. He was hit in the face by Waqar Younis in that game, but continued to bat. His first Test hundred, a match-saving one at Old Trafford, came when he was 17, and he had 16 Test hundreds before he turned 25. In 2000 he became the first batter to have scored 50 international hundreds, in 2008 he passed Brian Lara as the leading Test run-scorer, and in the years after, he went past 13,000 Test runs, 30,000 international runs, and 50 Test hundreds.