Indian cricket legends Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid will appear in a historic match at Lord’s in London on 5th July Saturday.
This will be Sachin’s first competitive match since his retirement. He will captains an MCC side against the Rest of the World in a fixture commemorating the 200th anniversary of Thomas Lord’s ground.
Sunday Times reported that Friday’s private practice session of Sachin at Lord’s was one of the several he has planned to ready himself for Saturday’s fixture. Indian former left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra was there on Friday. The previous day a leg-spinner was on hand, preparation for a resumption of battle with Shane Warne, who captains the Rest of the World. The prospect of Warne sparring with Tendulkar and Brian Lara was probably enough on its own to guarantee a sellout.
Sachin told the Times that he was not missing the game but neither did he seem unhappy to have a match to look forward to again.
“It sounds strange if I say I didn’t miss it much but I was quite happy doing my own things [after retiring], things I was unable to do during my playing days, catching up with friends and not worrying about the time because I was practising the next day. I’ve had no such pressures. It’s been fantastic.
“After retirement I needed time to come to terms with my new life but it hasn’t been difficult. My retirement was gradual. I stopped [international] Twenty20s in 2007 and ODIs in 2012. It was not as though overnight my cricket was taken away from me.
“It came at the perfect time. I always used to wonder how my last game would be. Well, whatever you dream, my retirement has gone past that. I got an amazing send-off. I got emotional leaving the field for the last time but I knew it was the right call. Maybe that’s the reason I didn’t feel like getting back in the nets. However much I thank the people of India, it’s not enough.”
Tendulkar believes the secret to his own success was an abiding love for his sport.
“Ups and downs are your constant companions but for how long can you stay madly in love with cricket? You’ve got to find reasons that allow you to work harder and try harder.” I showed him two photographs from his retirement match against West Indies. One is a celebrated image by Atul Kamble — it won the coveted award of Wisden-MCC Cricket Photograph of the Year in 2013 — of a sunlit Tendulkar at the top of the steps by the field while fans stretch to capture his picture on their cameras.