‘Game recognises game’ – India legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar on Thursday paid tribute to batting icon and unarguably world’s greatest batsman Sir Don Bradman on the occasion of the latter’s 112th birth anniversary. On his Twitter handle, Tendulkar shared a photo of his meeting with Australian legend on his 90th birthday at his residence.
Bradman is considered as one of the greatest batsmen to ever play the gentlemen’s game. The former Australian great played 52 Tests from 1928 to 1948 and scored 6996 runs at a staggering average of 99.94, which is still the highest by any batsman.
The COVID-19-forced break and the uncertainty it brought has turned the athletes into a worried lot but Tendulkar has advice for them.
The 47-year-old Tendulkar has asked the worried athletes to find inspiration from Sir Bradman’s, who missed out on eight years of Test cricket between 1939 to 1945 due to World War II but did not let it affect his performance.
Even such a long period couldn’t make Bradman rusty as he was hungry as ever during the final phase of his career finishing with an unbeatable average of 99.94 from 52 games.
“Sir Don Bradman was away from cricket for several years due to World War II, yet has the highest Test batting average,” Tendulkar wrote on twitter while remembering the ‘greatest’ of them on his 112th birth anniversary.
Sir Don Bradman was away from 🏏 for several years due to World War II, yet has the highest Test batting average.
Today, with concerns about athletes’ form due to uncertainties & long breaks, his career stands even taller as a source of inspiration.
Happy birthday Sir Don. pic.twitter.com/Q735mlJMvk
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) August 27, 2020
“Today, with concerns about athletes’ form due to uncertainties and long breaks, his career stands even taller as a source of inspiration. Happy birthday Sir Don,” he further wrote.
Speaking about how players will cope up with this long six-month break before the IPL starts, the Indian batting maestro had spoken about days till the 1990s when there used to be a dedicated cricket season in India.
“If I am not mistaken, one phase during 90s, between March, 1994 and October 1995, for close to 18 months, we had hardly played in Test matches (five in all),” Tendulkar remembered.
“During that phase till mid 90’s, getting three to four months off was a normal thing, and when we would go to Sri Lanka during summer months and a lot of matches would be washed out.
“There was no cricket in India and it was a normal thing,” he said.
