The Australia media has said that none of the contemporaries of Indian maestro Sachin Tendulkar has commanded his god-like status, which coincided with India's rise as a cricket superpower.
The batting genius had announced just before the Twenty20 clash between India and Australia that he would be retiring from international cricket after playing his 200th Test against the West Indies.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Tendulkar, who has played the game for almost a quarter of a century, combined brilliance with incredible longevity and outlasted fellow greats such as West Indies champion Brian Lara, Australian legend Ricky Ponting and Indian teammate Rahul Dravid.
The report further said that Tendulkar had inspired a new generation of players who wanted to be like him, adding that his record of 3630 runs at 55 against Australia is testament to his god-like status.
Although Tendulkar's super-stardom did not dull his run-making as he churned out phenomenal 51 Test centuries and was a master at countering spin, the report, however, said that his exalted status in the game, especially in India, had its downsides as his success did not often translate into success for his team.
The report further said that Tendulkar's pursuit of one hundred international hundreds in Australia during the summer of 2011-12 became an unhealthy obsession, if not for him then for his country, despite India having other exalted greats like Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble.
However, the report concluded that even though the emergence of new batting talents like Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan suggests that the Indian team will get along without Tendulkar, his retirement will leave a massive hole in the game as cricket, in its modern guises, is unlikely to produce another player like him.