Master and Dilshan Announces Retirement

"It is hard to imagine any player in the history of the game who combines classical technique with raw aggression like the little champion does. There is not a single shot he cannot play."
Sunil Gavaskar, former India captain

"Sachin was easily the best player over the last 20 years & will be remembered as one of the all time greats!"
Shane Warne, former Australia legspinner via Twitter

"At the age of 14, all he knew was batting and he would bat all day; the coach would actually have to pull him out of the nets. I think that's the reason he has been successful. It's not just the talent he was born with but what he did with it."
Sourav Ganguly , former India captain, told NDTV

"In 1989, I was lucky to be his first captain and it was amazing that this 16-year-old boy making his debut was playing so calmly. The way he played fast bowling in the first tour to Australia was also another amazing thing. Sachin is still the same person I saw in 1989. That's his greatness not just as a cricketer but as a human being."
Kris Srikkanth, Tendulkar's first India captain, NDTV

"I think Tendulkar has been the ideal role model in Indian cricket and that is why we are now seeing a new generation of quality batsmen from India."
Javed Miandad, former Pakistan captain

"When I made my debut, I got out early in the first innings for 4. On the same evening, he [Tendulkar] came to me and said, 'don't worry, the ball kept a little low. Even if I was batting, I might have got out to that ball.' He told me your time will come, you are scoring well at the domestic level, you need not worry. I was a little worried and surprised - he was batting 150-plus and Vijay was 100-plus. I thought my batting would not come again in the Test match. I had only one opportunity to score and I got out. But when he came and told me, and ultimately I got a chance to bat in the second innings, I went on to score 72. When a player like him comes and tells you - I was making my debut and I was a youngster. I am very much thankful to him for providing all the guidance throughout my career."
Cheteshwar Pujara, India batsman

"We should remember his playing career as something that always gave us joy and made us proud."
Mohammad Azharuddin, former India captain

"Privileged to have seen a child prodigy go on to become a true legend of the game from very close quarters. All the best Sachin."
Sanjay Manjrekar, former India and Mumbai team-mate, via Twitter

"I think it's a bad day for Indian cricket, world cricket as well."
Muttiah Muralitharan, former Sri Lanka offspinner

"It's always difficult to comprehend how someone like Sachin lives his life. He has always managed his career well , managed to perform under an extreme amount of pressure and never had any scandals, which is a credit on him and his family."
Graeme Smith, South Africa Test captain

"Great player & a brilliant human being. Thanks for the memories, Paaji. Privileged to have shared the dressing room with you."
Aakash Chopra, former India opener

"Salutes to Sachin paaji. I think India jersey number 10 should retire as well and preserved forever. Thanks Paaji"
Gautam Gambhir, India batsman, via Twitter

"The sight of the straight lines of the bat on its downswing; the power of the back foot punch; thanks for the memories Sachin. Glad you came."
Ian Bishop, former West Indies fast bowler, via Twitter

"Sachin Tendukar to retire after his 200th test match v windies in Mumbai;Best batsman I bowled to at his peak no weakness #LittleMaster."
Damien Fleming, former Australia fast bowler, via Twitter

"A great player but struggled against part time Off spin @sachin_rt !!!!!! #BornToPlayCricket."
Michael Vaughan, former England captain, via Twitter

"I have been an ardent follower and admirer of Sachin Tendulkar from the days he came to play Buchi Babu in Chennai. No one has served Indian cricket as Sachin has. We respect his decision to retire although many of us can't imagine an Indian team without Sachin."
N Srinivasan, BCCI president

"He had so much time to play the ball, to pick the line and length. I saw Bradman play in 1948 and he is the nearest player I have seen to Bradman and would always be in my side as the No.4. I cannot pay a higher compliment than that."
Dickie Bird, former Test umpire, told CNN-IBN

"Sachin #10dulkar - Undisputed Champion of Cricket! #SachinTheGreat."
Kevin Pietersen, via Twitter

"My mind goes back to New Year's Eve December 31 1987 when I first heard Sunil Gavaskar tell me there's a 14 year old in Mumbai who's going to be the future of Indian batting. I kept watching out for that boy, I followed his Ranji debut. The greatest Indian to ever wield the cricket bat."
Shashi Tharoor, author and minister in the Indian government, told NDTV

Dilshan will continue to play in the shorter formats for his country, however. "I will discuss my future with the national selectors and if they need me I will play till the 2015 World Cup," Dilshan said.

Tillakaratne Dilshan said his decision to open the innings in Test cricket was the most important in his 14-year career, as he retired from Tests on Thursday.

"The 3-4 years I opened for my country I played with a lot of pride because I was able to give my team a lot of opportunities to win matches," he said. "In the middle order, sometimes, by the time I came to bat there were hardly any partners for me and I couldn't contribute much. I proved how much my team and I benefited from the move to open."

Dilshan is the sixth-highest run-scorer for Sri Lanka in Tests. He hit 16 hundreds in his career, which is the joint fourth-highest among Sri Lanka batsmen. He is the only player in Test history to score 300-plus runs and take four wickets in a single Test match. His best year in Test cricket in terms of numbers was 2009 - that year, he became only the third Sri Lanka batsman after Aravinda de Silva and Mahela Jayawardene to score five or more hundreds in a calendar year.

Dilshan averaged 42.54 as an opener in Tests, second-highest among Sri Lanka openers with a minimum of 1500 runs. Arguably, the most striking feature of Dilshan's batting in Tests was the pace at which he scored runs. On quite a few occasions, and not unlike Virender Sehwag - whom Dilshan was often compared with since he started opening for Sri Lanka - he got his team off to brisk starts. Dilshan is even ahead of his compatriot Sanath Jayasuriya - known for his free-scoring ways - in terms of strike rate while opening in Tests, though he opened in fewer innings.

Tillakaratne Dilshan's worth as a Test batsman is not apparent in his overall Test record. He scored 5492 runs from 145 innings at an average of 40.98, not figures that rank among the great batsmen of the modern era. But few have adapted their game to the requirements of their team as he has: of the 11 batsmen in Tests to have scored 2000 or more runs at No. 6, he is the only one to have also scored 2000-plus runs opening the batting. This, despite a batting technique that wasn't best suited for opening in Tests.

Dilshan averaged 34.52 from 47 innings playing outside Asia, a sharp decrease of almost ten runs when compared to his average of 44.14 when playing in the subcontinent.


The one country outside the subcontinent where Dilshan earned his bragging rights was England. He averaged 49.77 from nine innings in England - the highest among Sri Lanka batsmen with a minimum of 400 runs in the UK. This included an innings of 193 at Lord's as captain, his highest Test score. He is one of the only six captains from the subcontinent to hit a century at Lord's and only the second Sri Lankan captain to do so after Mahela Jayawardene.

Like most batsmen from the subcontinent, Dilshan was more comfortable facing up to spinners than to fast bowlers. Against spinners he averaged 54.95 as opposed to 39.22 against fast bowlers in Tests since 2002. His attacking style of play against spinners gave them enough chances too, largely the reason why most of the leading wicket-takers against Dilshan in Tests are all spinners; but he managed to take these bowlers for runs too. Only Shane Warne and to some extent Danish Kaneria had some success bowling against Dilshan.

His stint as Sri Lanka captain mirrors his Test career - significant contributions hidden under otherwise seemingly ordinary numbers. Dilshan captained Sri Lanka in 11 Tests and the only match he won as captain was probably their most important win overseas, against South Africa at Durban, one of only four to have come outside Asia and Zimbabwe.

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Sanjay wrote:uv dedicated his innings to master

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without any doubt

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Parth wrote:Deepppppp........ only your posting is not enough

try to get others too

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