London, September
05: A plaque, a silver salver and loads of well-wishes were
what Sachin Tendulkar was presented with on the occasion of his
100th Test here on Thursday.
Though his team-mates
deliberately kept it low key in keeping with Tendulkar's wishes,
they took turns to greet the maestro at the team hotel on the
morning of the fourth and final Test against England at the
Oval.
"It wasn't much
different to what we usually have on a typical morning of Test
cricket," said manager Ranga Reddy.
Tendulkar, who needs
another 144 runs to become the first cricketer ever to score
20,000 international runs, was his usual modest self and thanked
everyone for their gesture.
"There was no such
thing as Sachin getting on to the bus first or being the first
to get down at the Oval," Reddy said.
Ganguly, however, made
the moment special by presenting Tendulkar with a silver salver
-- with all the team members' autographs inscribed on it - just
before the team took the field against England.
The formal function to
celebrate the moment though took place at the ground when Mumbai
Cricket Association (MCA) president Sharad Pawar presented a
plaque to Tendulkar on behalf of Cricket Club of India whose
president Rajsingh Dungarpur was at hand to greet the little
genius.
Praveen Barve, vice
president of the MCA said, the state association, along with the
Indian Cricket Board, would celebrate the occasion in a big way
during the first home Test against the West Indies in Mumbai in
October.
Tendulkar became the
26th cricketer, and the fourth Indian, to reach the milestone of
playing in 100 Tests.
Tendulkar, who at 29
years is the youngest ever to play 100 Tests, needs just 68 more
runs to complete his 1000 runs for the year for only the fourth
time in his illustrious career. Previously he managed the feat
in 1997 (1000 runs from 12 Tests), 1999 (1088 from 10 Tests) and
2001 (1003 from 10 Tests).
Tendulkar is currently
153 runs shy of scoring 500 runs in the present series,
something which he hasn't done before and only 190 runs short of
relegating Vivian Richards of West Indies (8542) to the seventh
spot in the all-time list of run- makers.
