Rahul Dravid has made it clear that it’s impossible to fill in the boots of Sachin Tendulkar when he will bid adieu to the Cricket but yes the game will go on.
Rahul was quoted by Indian Express saying, "People used to say the same thing when Sunil Gavaskar retired and during that time Sachin knocked the doors of international cricket and went on to be the all-time greatest that this game had ever seen. It would be strange for his fans to see him taking a retirement but that is something which is going to happen at some point of time in near future.”
Kapil Dev recollected his first over that he bowled to Tendulkar at the Brabourne Stadium (in Mumbai). He was quoted by Deccan Chronicle saying, "He was 14 years old at that time and I was quite reluctant to bowl at him. But he was a sheer class at that tender age; he flicked me couple of quick deliveries and gave a glimpse that he is not just here to play but to conquer this game with his elegance and dedication.”
Meanwhile former Indian captains Sourav Ganguly and Sunil Gavaskar added that his knock of 114 against Australia at Perth in 1992 was the best innings they had ever seen in their life-time. Tendulkar spelled the magic with his bat by playing a rock-solid innings at WACA. They were quoted by Times of India saying, “The way he batted at the age of 18 against the likes of Craig McDermott and Merv Hughes was something extraordinary and everyone was mesmerised with his special knock.”
One of the great admirers of Sachin, Muttiah Muralitharan praised him for his tremendous career and the respect that he has for his opposition throughout his career. According to the reports of Deccan Herald, Muttiah Muralitharan was quoted saying, “He is a high-quality player who has that very special quality of inspiring people with his mere presence on the field and that’s what stands him apart from rest of the international cricketers. He is always going to be the World no.1 in my list because in the manner he has carried himself all these years with such a sublime form is something we don’t see quite often.”
"In 1993, I saw him for the first time when he used to have those curly hairs and to everyone’s surprise he was the most talked about cricketer after his debut. He was rated as the next big thing soon after his international debut because of the talent he had. For the first time; I had some doubts in my mind whether he is that good to defy us but he turned out to be better than the batting legends of that time,” he added.
