Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar is poised for an emotional farewell when his 200th and final Test gets under way in his home city of Mumbai on Thursday.
The 40-year-old record run-scorer in Tests and one-day internationals will quit all cricket after India’s second Test against West Indies.
Tendulkar has scored an unprecedented 100 international hundreds in his 24-year career and helped India win the World Cup in 2011.
India lead the two-match series 1-0.
Tendulkar’s final match will cap a month-long outpouring of emotion from a cricket-mad nation of 1.2 billion people which started when he confirmed that the series against West Indies would be his last.
Such has been the interest in Tendulkar’s final match that a website selling tickets crashed within minutes of opening after receiving 19.7 million hits in the first hour.
Fans have staged protests against the fact that only 5,000 of the 33,000 tickets went on public sale, with the remainder of the seats being filled by politicians, celebrities, former players and corporate guests.
The area around the Wankhede Stadium has been plastered with posters and murals of the player dubbed the “Little Master”.
Tendulkar’s wife, Anjali, has joked that they may require a museum to house all the gifts and mementos.
Meanwhile, tributes have been flocking in from some of Tendulkar’s most illustrious contemporaries.
West Indies great Brian Lara described the India star as “the Muhammad Ali and the Michael Jordan of cricket”.
Lara, who scored 11,953 runs in 131 Tests, added: “Tendulkar has had the greatest cricket career of anyone who has ever played the game.”
Former Australia Shane Warne also praised the prolific batsman.
“There will not be another Sachin Tendulkar,” Warne, who took 708 Test wickets, wrote in his Daily Telegraph column. “He was the best batsman of my generation.”
The hysteria surrounding Tendulkar has overshadowed a milestone for West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who will be playing his 150th Test.
The 39-year-old left-hander, however, said it was a “privilege” just to be sharing the stage with the Indian on such a momentous occasion.
“We have watched him over the years. It is always a joy to look at him bat even though he is batting against us,” said Chanderpaul, who has scored 10,897 runs at an average of 51.89.
“There is so much you can learn from a legend like him. He is a master of batting. His art, his skill and looking at him you can learn a lot.”
West Indies captain Darren Sammy said his bowlers were competing to be the last man to dismiss Tendulkar.
“From the moment we heard it is going to be his last Test in Mumbai, all the bowlers were quite motivated,” he said.
“There is a chance to go down in history. The last stroke he would play in any cricket match and your name could go down in there.”
