Sachin Tendulkar, who retired from international cricket in 2013 after scoring 15,921 Test runs and 18,426 ODI runs and is still the leading run-scorer in international cricket in Tests and ODIs, added that his first regret was not playing alongside Sunil Gavaskar and the second regret was not being able to play against his childhood hero Sir Vivian Richards.
Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar said he had two regrets in life despite an illustrious career spanning more than two decades where he played 200 Tests and 463 ODI, scoring 51 and 49 centuries, respectively.
Sachin Tendulkar Regrets Not Having Played Alongside Sunil Gavaskar
Sachin Tendulkar is the highest run-scorer of all time in international cricket, and the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International (ODI), the holder of the record for the most runs in both Test and ODI cricket, and the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket.
Sachin Tendulkar was a part of the Indian team that won the 2011 World Cup, his first win in six World Cup appearances for India. He had previously been named “Player of the Tournament” at the 2003 edition of the tournament held in South Africa.
“I have two regrets. The first is that I have never played with Sunil Gavaskar. Gavaskar was my batting hero when I grew up and not playing with him as part of a team remains a regret. Gavaskar retired a couple of years before I made my debut,” Sachin Tendulkar told.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen and one of the best opening batsmen in Test cricket history, Sunil Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any batsman.
He held the record of 34 Test centuries for almost two decades before it was broken by Sachin Tendulkar in December 2005. He was the first person to score centuries in both innings of a Test match three times. He was the first Test batsman to score 10,000 Test runs in a career and now stands at number 12 on the group of 13 players with 10,000-plus Test runs.
Sachin Tendulkar’s 2nd Regret Is Not Being Able To Play Against Sir Vivian Richards
Sachin Tendulkar, who retired from international cricket in 2013 and is still the leading run-scorer in international cricket in Tests and ODIs, added that his second regret was not being able to play against his childhood hero Sir Vivian Richards.
“My other regret is not having played against my childhood hero Sir Vivian Richards. I was fortunate to have played against him in county cricket, but I still rue not being able to play against him in an international match.”
“Even though Sir Richards retired in 1991 and we have a couple of years overlapping in our careers, we did not get to play against each other,” he added.
Overall, Sir Vivian Richards scored 8,540 runs in 121 Test matches at an average of 50.23, including 24 centuries. As a captain, he won 27 of 50 Test matches and lost only 8. He also scored nearly 7,000 runs in One Day Internationals and more than 36,000 in first-class cricket. Knighted for his contributions to cricket, today Sir Vivian Richards is an occasional cricket commentator and team mentor.