BCCI i.e. the Board of Control for Cricket in India has unofficially retired Sachin Tendulkar’s Jersey number 10. The move has been made as a tribute to the legendary cricketer. Sachin, who is known as the God of Cricket, had worn the Jersey No 10 throughout his 24-year long career in all the ODIs and T20 that he played.
The decision has been taken in order to keep the jersey number10 solely associated with the Master Blaster Sachin. As per the reports, the top players of the Indian cricket team also agreed that it was a sensible move to retire the Jersey.
Tendulkar wore the Jersey no 10 for the last time in March 2012 during the Asia Cup match against Pakistan. Later in 2013 he retired from all the formats of cricket. After that the Jersey no 10 was kept unused for almost 5 years until Mumbai’s Shardul Thakur was given the jersey in his ODI debut at Columbo.
Shardul Thakur wearing the Jersey no 10 during his debut ODI
Thakur was brutally trolled and criticized for donning the jersey considering it was a prestigious one due to its association with Tendulkar. As a result, BCCI decided that in order to avoid controversies and unnecessary criticism, it’s better to retire the jersey from international cricket matches.
However, the trend is not new. Earlier, various sports teams have retired jerseys of famous players like Michael Jordan’s Jersey number 23 and Kobe Bryant Jersey number 24. In fact, Mumbai Indians had already retired the Jersey no 10 from IPL after Sachin’s retirement in 2013. Since there is no official procedure of retiring jerseys in ICC guidelines, the BCCI had to do it unofficially.
