'The God' has called it quits and cricket won't find another one to fill the vaccum for a long, long time to come.
Sachin Tendulkar, the man who gave nightmares to bowlers, inspired fellow batsmen to be like him and helped umpires forget how tiring it can be to stand on the field all day long, will quit Test cricket after playing his 200th match against the West Indies next month.
At 5'5, Tendulkar was not exactly the most colossal player to stride on to the field but he bows out as a giant, who ruled cricket for 24 years and gave his legion of fans mesmeric and emotionally overwhelming memories.
With a mountain of runs good enough to bury a statistician to death, Tendulkar's retirement creates a vacuum so huge that one can safely say that cricket would never be the same again.
For the record, his 198 Test appearances yielded 15,837 runs at an average of 53.86, a feat so huge in magnitude that no contemporary or even a talented successor of his, looks capable of overhauling it in the near or distant future.
Being a part-time bowler, he has taken 45 wickets at an economy rate of 3.51.
His journey started way back in 1989 when he was just 16 years of age.
A disarming smile, curly locks, resolute eyes and abundant talent, this was the Tendulkar who first stepped on to the minefield that is Test cricket against a ferocious Pakistani bowling attack boasting of that deadly combo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.
Tendulkar gave an early display of his steely resolve when he continued to bat in a blood-soaked shirt despite being hit on his face.
That resolve came to define the little man who had the world's most feared bowlers bowing in admiration of his talent and skill. His wicket, in fact, remains the most cherished for all those who managed to have it against their name.
