Memorable quotes on Sachin Tendulkar

Bidding adieu to the Master!

It has finally happened. Sachin Tendulkar has announced that he will retire after his 200th Test match against West Indies. Words cannot describe what kind of an impact this decision is having on the Indian cricket fans at the moment.

On the other hand, a certain section of fans pretend to remain unconcerned, arguing that this doesn’t make any difference as Tendulkar, in the last couple of years, had become a shadow of a player he was. To those, we challenge you to go through these quotes on the Master Blaster and try not bursting down into tears.

BBC Sports, on Sachin Tendulkar:

Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don’t know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives

Peter Roebuck:

“On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!”

Andrew Flintoff:

When you bowl at him you are not just trying to get him out, you are trying to impress him. “I want him to walk off thinking ‘that Flintoff, he’s all right isn’t he? I feel privileged to have played against him

Abdul Qadir:

I was fielding in the covers when Tendulkar came out to bat in his debut Test at Karachi. I still remember Waqar Younis was in peak form at that time. Tendulkar tried to drive Waqar through the covers off his very first ball in Test cricket but was beaten all ends up. But I walked to captain Imran Khan and told him ‘this kid looks very good’ and Imran agreed with me

Mahendra Singh Dhoni:

I have joked before that there is a good chance that I might retire before Tendulkar

Daniel Vettori:

He has been in form longer than some of our guys have been alive

Sourav Ganguly:

To me he will not just be remembered as a great player and a lovely human being, but as somebody who tried to learn Bengali for the last 14 years but never managed to do so!

Shahrukh Khan:

I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing us to breathe the same air as you do

Michael Atherton:

The archives recall not one single incriminating incident, not one drunken escapade, not one reported affair, not one spat with a team-mate or reporter … As Matthew Parris wondered of Barack Obama in these pages recently, is he human?

Adam Hollioake :

In an over I can bowl six different balls. But then Sachin looks at me with a sort of gentle arrogance down the pitch as if to say,’Can you bowl me another one?’

Hansie Cronje:

I had to remind Gary Kristen often that he was in the covers to field against Sachin not to applaud him

Lata Mangeshkar:

Sachin treats me like his mother and I always pray for her like a mother. I can never forget the day when he called me ‘aai’ (mother) for the first time. I had never imagined that. It was pleasant surprise for me and I feel blessed to have a son like him

Ravi Shastri:

He is someone sent from up there to play cricket and go back

Hashim Amla:

Nothing bad can happen to us if we’re on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it

A fan at the SCG:

Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed because even the Lord is watching

Andy Flower:

“There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others”

Shane Warne:

I’ll be going to bed having nightmares of Sachin just running down the wicket and belting me back over the head for six. He was unstoppable. I don’t think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar. He is just an amazing player

Virat Kohli after India won the 2011 World Cup:

“Sachin Tendulkar has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years. It is time we carried him on our shoulders”

Matthew Hayden:

“I have seen God, he bats at no. 4 for India”

Sir Donald Bradman

I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I felt that this player is playing with a style similar to mine, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two…his compactness, technique, stroke production – it all seemed to gel!

Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997):

“We did not lose to a team called India. We lost to a man called Sachin”