Sachin Tendulkar

Pakistan’s former Test players eulogized a lot on the Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar for becoming the first batsman to score fifty Test centuries. Tendulkar can now rightly be called as the greatest batsman in cricket history,” said ex Pakistani skipper and wicketkeeper Rashid Latif.

“If some people still doubt on his greatness then there are certainly no arguments about it, he is a complete runs machine and his fiftieth Test hundred is a symbol of his endurance and obsession for the sport,” Rashid quoted. Javed Miandad, who played in the same Test match at Karachi in Nov, 1989 in which Sachin made his debut, said he was happy for the Master Blaster.

“When walked out to bat in that Test match as a teenager, everyone in our team sensed it that he had exceptional talent. Even after Waqar Younis got him out for a duck in his very first innings when he tried to play a cover drive, the skill in that drive itself said it all. It was just his bad luck that the ball went in.

But the fact that he has been playing for 21 plus years now and done justice to that god gifted talent in both Tests and ODIs is something any cricketer would be proud off,” Miandad added. He also said that he didn’t see Tendulkar’s record of fifty big innings is something that is very rare to happen in the future.

Haneef Muhammad who turns 76 on Tuesday paid tribute to Sachin, saying that he makes it a point to watch cricket when Tendulkar is batting in Tests. “I watch the matches in which he is playing because I haven’t seen anyone gifted with such excellence, which he has enhanced with his hard work n perseverance and thus has become a role model for every young batsman,” Hanif said.

Ex-Pakistani wicketkeeper and skipper Moin Khan said he had played a lot against Sachin and he admires his competitiveness and hunger for runs. “He was always competitive but also polite on the field thus keeping up with the sportsman’s spirit. This definitely makes him the role model for young cricketers. He also defines the fact that as long as you have the passion and will to play cricket, age is no barrier to go far,” Moin said.

Current Pakistan team selector and former batsman Shoaib Muhammad, who played in Tendulkar’s debut Test, said Sachin could reach such great heights only because he has been really working hard on his batting and fitness and was of a class of batsmen who could deliver great innings in any part of the world under any circumstances. Former Test batsman Basit Ali pointed out that India had produced many world class batsmen but none of them could match the perseverance and hunger for runs shown by Tendulkar.

Tags: Cricket, Haneef Muhammad, India, Javed Miandad, Moin Khan, Pakistan, Players, Rashid Latif, Sachin Tendulkar, Test Cricket, Test Match, Waqar Younis