Sachin Tendulkar, the global ambassador, for the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023, was a guest commentator at England vs New Zealand tournament opener at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The leading run-scorer in international cricket history and the only man with hundred international centuries to his name was part of India's 2011 World Cup-winning team in what his final attempt to lift the trophy. He reminisced his cricketing journey in the commentary box, the video of which has gone viral on social media.
Take a look at the ICC video:
The 50-year-old who last played an international match in 2013, featured in 200 Tests, 463 ODIs and a solitary T20I. He scored 15921, 18426 and 10 runs in them respectively. Widely regarded as one of the finest batters ever to have played the game, Tendulkar had made five earlier attempts to win the World Cup but India had fallen short each time. The closes they had come to it before ultimately lifting the trophy in 2011 was in 2003 when the Men in Blue lost in the finals against Australia with Sourav Ganguly at the helm of affairs.
Tendulkar was a 10-year-old kid when India won the World Cup under Kapil Dev. He had time and again gone on record how that event inspired a dream in him of wanting to play for the country and lifting the same trophy. He echoed similar sentiments as he spoke to the commentators during the World Cup opener in Ahmedabad.
The former India skipper was seen bringing in the trophy into the stadium before the start of the 2023 World Cup match number 1 between the two teams that played the finals of the 2019 edition of the tournament.