Tendulkar to bow out after his 200th Test

Master blaster says it would be hard for him to imagine life without playing cricket

Sachin Tendulkar, announced on Thursday that he will retire after playing his 200th test match next month. Tendulkar contacted the President of BCCI and expressed his urge to retire.

"All my life, I have had a dream of playing cricket for India. I have been living this dream every day for the last 24 years", said an emotional Tendulkar who debuted in 1989, playing his first match against Pakistan.

He said that it would be hard for him to imagine life without playing cricket "because it’s all I have ever done since I was 11 years old."

India is scheduled to play West Indies in a two-match series in the next month between 14-18 November, the venue although is undecided. "I look forward to playing my 200th Test Match on home soil, as I call it a day", said Tendulkar, also known as Master Blaster.

Tendulkar will become the first player to play 200 test matches. With this, he will retire from all the forms of cricket.

BCCI President N. Srinivasan said: "I have been an ardent follower and admirer of Sachin Tendulkar from the days he came to play Buchi Babu in Chennai. He is without doubt the greatest cricketer India has produced. In fact one should really say he ranks among the top of all time great sports persons in the world."

In test matches, he has scored 15,837 runs and made 51 centuries in his 198 matches long career so far.

Earlier, he had announced his retirement from the Indian Premier League after playing the final match of Champions League against the Rajasthan Royals, which his team, Mumbai Indians won.

In December last year, he announced his retired from One Day Internationals as well. Tendulkar had played 463 ODIs, scored 18,426 runs and made 49 centuries, each of them is a world record. ""I feel blessed to have fulfilled the dream of being part of a World Cup winning Indian team", he had said.