Thor of cricket steps inside Asgardian Hall Of Fame

He’s 46. Retired. Content. And, still finds Santa Claus all woke and around wrong time of the year at his doorstep to make a delivery, of one more gift, of one last accolade. 

Batting legend Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has been inducted into the ICC (international cricket council) hall of fame, where he gets to rub shoulders with all-time cricketing greats. Tendulkar was accorded the distinction along with former South African pacer Allan Donald and woman cricketer Cathryn Fitzpatrick. The Australian cricketer has been a two-time World Cup winner. 

Tendulkar is the sixth Indian cricketer to sport the halo around him. Before him, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Bishan Singh Bedi have been honoured in the first year of induction when the ICC Hall of Fame was introduced in 2009.

In it’s testimonial to Tendulkar’s extraordinary feat in the game of cricket, the ICC states: 

If immortality comes from achievements, the ‘Little Master’ does have a very good claim to it. For starters, he has a stunning aggregate of 34,357 runs across formats, more than 6,000 ahead of the second-placed Kumar Sangakkara. Those numbers came on the back of hundreds – hundred of them to be exact, 29 clear of the next on the list, Ricky Ponting.

That’s Tendulkar in his Asgardardian dominance over the lesser mortals in the gentlman’s game. 

Among his contemporaries, former spinner Anil Kumle, who stunned arch rivals Pakistan into submission while playing the unforgettable 1999 test at the Feroz Shah Kotla grounds in New Delhi where he had single-handledly taken out the entire team by scalping all ten wickets, shares the honour. His record ten-wicket haul only achieved by his English predecessor Jim Laker. 

Rahul Wall Dravid is the only other Indian who has been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame. 

Donald, 52, who was brandished as the White Lightning when the South Africans were on a rampage under fallen hero Hanse Cronje gets to share the pedestal with other cricketing legends. I remember him, though, with some piqued interest and a heavy heart as the man who had in his moment of weakness and blunderous confusion with Lance Klusener cost team a berth in the finals of the 1999 ICC World Cup.

Fitzpatrick, the third entry, coached the Australian women’s cricket team to three World Cup victories. She is best remembered for her bowling achievements where she has 240 scalps under her belt in both ODI and test formats of the game. 

At a time when heroes are born in the day and gone by its end, Tendulkar continues to stand tall as a God, even on the sidelines of the game he once dominated.