A grand statue of India's legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has been unveiled on November 2, at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The unveiling of the statue, which was earlier planned for the legend's 50th birthday in April, coincided with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 match between India and Sri Lanka.
The statue has been built adjacent to the Sachin Tendulkar Stand inside the stadium and portrays the 'Master Blaster' in what can be presumed a lofted straight drive.
The event was graced by the presence of several dignitaries including Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah, Maharashtra's Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Vice-President of the BCCI Rajeev Shukla among others. The statue has been designed by Pramod Kamble, a renowned painter and sculptor hailing from the Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra.
‘The Master Blaster’, widely considered one of the greatest batters of all time, was present for the unveiling of his statue at the iconic venue where he won his only World Cup triumph 12 years ago and where he also played an emotional farewell match against West Indies in 2013. He scored a match-winning fifty (74 off 118 balls) against the West Indies and helped India win the clash by an innings and 126 runs.
Even after almost 10 years of retirement, Sachin holds some major records in the sport. He is the leading run-getter (18426) in ODIs and Tests (15921 runs). The 50-year-old also holds the record of scoring the most number of centuries in ODIs and Tests. The former right-handed batter scored 49 ODI tons and 51 hundreds in the longest format of the sport.
Tendulkar has expressed his delight and dedicated the statue to everyone who had been part of his journey as a cricketer.on his official Twitter handle, X (formerly Twitter).
https://tinyurl.com/mryncafp
(Inputs from Reuters)
