There hasn’t been a more influential figure in Indian cricket than Sachin Tendulkar. The ‘Master Blaster’ ruled the hearts of every Indian cricket fan for nearly a quarter of a century.

In a cricket-mad country like India, living up to people’s expectations is not easy but the Mumbai-born did that exceedingly well throughout his international career that spanned 24 years, starting in 1989 and culminating in 2013.

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The day the world’s leading run-scorer retired from international cricket, it was a sad day for all of us – not just in India all over the world.

Most of us had grown up watching him play cricket and the very thought that we would not be able to see arguably the world’s greatest cricketer don the India jersey ever again had made all of us pretty emotional. 

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As much difficult it was for us, it was equally painful for the legend himself. After all, he was walking away from one thing that had formed an important part of his life all these years. 

Recalling the emotions he went through on the day of his retirement back in 2013, the 48-year-old said that it was hard for him to control his emotions and tears kept flowing down his eyes, while he was sitting inside the dressing room.  

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Not just us fans, it was an emotional day for the whole team, especially those young players who had started playing cricket because of him.  

One such player who was lucky enough to share the dressing room with him in his last match was Virat Kohli. 

During an interaction with Graham Bensinger on his YouTube channel, the former India opener said that sitting in a corner with a towel on his head, he was wiping his tears and that is when Kohli came to him and gave him a sacred thread that his late father had given him.

“I was sitting in one corner alone with a towel on my head and wiping tears and I was really emotional. And at that time, Virat had come to me and Virat gave me the sacred thread that his father had given him,” Tendulkar said during the candid chat. 

It was a wonderful gesture from young Kohli but given what it meant to him, Tendulkar said he just couldn’t take it as it was given to him by his late father as a blessing. 

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“And I kept that for a while and then returned that to him again. I said, ‘This is priceless and this has to stay with you and no one else. This is your property. And you should have it till your last breath.’ And I gave it back to him. So that was an emotional moment, something which will be always there in my memory, forever,” he added. 

It was the most valuable possession Kohli had with him, and the fact that he was willing to part with that just goes on show how much respect and admiration he had for the legendary batter.

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