"Nothing bad can happen to us if we're on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it."
Hashim Amla, the South African batsman, reassures himself as he boards a flight
Yaseer Hameed:
"Sometimes you get so engrossed in watching batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar that you lose focus on your job."
"To Sachin, the man we all want to be"
What Andrew Symonds wrote on an Aussie t-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin
BBC on Sachin:
"Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives "
"But the finest compliment must be that bookmakers would not fix the odds -or a game - until Tendulkar was out."
"Tuzhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?"
Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin's catch.
Brian Charles Lara:
"Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal."
"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin"
Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1998)
M. L. Jaisimha:
"The more I see of him the more confused I'm getting to which is his best knock."
Glenn McGrath:
"The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility -all make for a one-in-a-billion individual"
Anjali:
"I can be hundred per cent sure that Sachin will not play for a minute longer when he is not enjoying himself. He is still so eager to go out there and play. He will play as long as he feels he can play"
Matthew Hayden:
"I have seen God, he bats at no. 4 for India"
Anil Kumble:
"I am fortunate that I've to bowl at him only in the nets!"
Shahrukh Khan(quoting Shahrukh from an interview)
"Q: Who do you think as most important celebrity ?
Shahrukh: There was a big party where stars from Bollywood and cricket were invited. Suddenly, there was a big noise, all wanted to see approaching Amitabh Bachhan. Then Sachin entered the hall and Amitabh was leading the queue to get a grab of the genius!!"
Navjot Singh Sidhu:
"India me aap PrimeMinister ko ek baar katghare me khada kar sakte hain,par Sachin Tendulkar par ungli nahi utha sakte.."
Waqar Younis:
"He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also."
A banner once said:
"I will see God when I die,till then I will see Sachin Tendulkar"
Allan Donald:
"Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the world"
Allan Donald again:
"I was bowling to Sachin and he hit me for two fours in a row. One from point and the other in between point and gully. That was the last two balls of the over and the over after that we (SA) took a wicket and during the group meeting i told Jonty (Rhodes) to be alert and i know a way to pin Sachin. And i delivered the first ball of my next over and it was a fuller length delivery outside offstump. And i shouted catch. To my astonishment the ball was hit to the cover boundary. Such was the brilliance of Sachin.His reflex time is the best I have ever seen. Its like 1/20th of a sec.To get his wicket better not prepare. Atleast you wont regret if he hits you for boundaries."
Peter Rebouck, Aussie journalist:
"On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations.The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century.This genius can stop time in India!!"
NKP Salve, former Union Minister (This was when he was accused of ball tempering):
"Sachin cannot cheat. He is to cricket what (Mahatma) Gandhiji was to politics. It's clear discrimination. "
Andy Flower:
"There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others."
A placard at the SCG when Sachin Tendulkar was on his way to a magnificent century
"Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed because even the Lord is watching."
Hansie Cronje:
"I had to remind Gary Kristen often that he was in the covers to field against Sachin not to applaud him"
Shane Warne:
"You have to decide for yourself whether you're bowling well or not. He's going to hit you for fours and sixes anyway."
During the Bangalore Test, frustrated, Michael Kasprowicz went to Dennis Lillee and asked, "Mate, do you see any weaknesses?" Lillee replied, "No Michael, as long as you walk off with your pride that's all you can do."
"Cricket is my religion, Sachin is my God"
"What do you call a critic of Sachin Tendulkar?Atheist"
"Indian defeat was God's way of saying... 'I exist'. He was threatened that Sachin would take over"
Ravi Shastri:
"Sachin has been sent by God to play cricket and then go back."
Ajay Jadeja:
"I can't dream of an innings like that. He exists where we can't."
Shane Warne:
"I'll be going to bed having nightmares of Sachin just running down the wicket and belting me back over the head for six. He was unstoppable. I don't think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar. He is just an amazing player"
Adam Hollioke:
"In an over I can bowl six different balls. But then Sachin looks at me with a sort of gentle arrogance down the pitch as if to say 'Can you bowl me another one?'"
Paul Strang:
"What we (Zimbabwe) need is 10 Tendulkars."
Dennis Lillee:
"If I've to bowl to Sachin, I'll bowl with my helmet on. He hits the ball so hard."
Sir Donald Bradman:
"I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this player is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two...his compactness, technique, stroke production... it all seemed to gel !"
Desmond Haynes:
"In terms of technique and compactness, Tendulkar is the best."
Sir Viv Richards:
"I think he is marvellous. I think he will fit in whatever category of Cricket that has been played or will be played, from the first ball that has ever been bowled to the last ball that’s going to be. He can play in any era and at any level. I would say he’s 99.5% perfect."
Mohammad Azharuddin:
"The more I see him, the more I want to see him."
Steve Waugh:
"We won with ten, but lost to one"
Harsha Bhogle:
"For every ball Sachin has two shots in his mind. And he gets out when he plays the third one".
"People say they saw Christ walk water..People say they saw Gandhiji win us freedom..People say they walked alongside Buddha 'The Enlightened One'. I will always say ~~ I SAW SACHIN BAT ~~"
Greg Chappell:
"He is a perfectly ablanced batsman and knows perfely well when to attack and when to play defensive cricket.He has developed the ability to treat bowlers all over the world with contempt and can destroy any attack with utmost ease"
Mark Waugh:
"The pressure on me is nothing compared to Sachin Tendulkar.Sachin,like God,must never fail.The crowd always expects him to succeed and it is too much pressure on him.But,he rarely disappoints them"
Brett Lee:
"You might pitch a ball on the off stump and think you have bowled a good ball and he walks across and hits it for two behind midwicket.His bat looks so heavy but he just waves it around like it's a toothpick"
Shane Warne:
"Don't sledge Sachin,rather befriend him"
Michael Kasprowicz:
"Don't bowl him bad balls, he hits the good ones for fours."
Wasim Akram:
"Cricketers like Sachin come once in a lifetime, and I am privileged he played in my time."
Mathew Hayden:
"When Tendulkar goes out to bat, it is beyond chaos - it's a frantic appeal by a nation to one man."
Shane Warne:
"You have to watch India in India truly to appreciate the pressure that Sachin Tendulkar is under every time he bats. Outside grounds, people wait until he goes in before paying to enter. They seem to want a wicket to fall even though it is their own side that will suffer"
Geoffrey Boycott:
"Technically, you can't fault Sachin. Seam or spin, fast or slow nothing is a problem."
Time magazine:
"We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we never will."
"To err is human,not to is Sachin"
"Sachin Tendulkar - Reducing the number of atheists since 1989"
David Shepherd:
"If he is not the best then I want to see the best"
Shane Warne, when asked about who he thought the greatest batsman in the world was:
"Sachin Tendulkar. Then daylight"
Mike Marqusee:
"Tendulkar is one of that narrow stratum of elite sports stars whom people will clamour and even make great sacrifices to watch, regardless of their national identity. If you care for cricket, you must love Sachin. In this regard, his peers are few - and mostly found in other sports, and certainly in other lands."
Shane Warne:
"You have to watch India in India truly to appreciate the pressure that Sachin Tendulkar is under every time he bats. Outside grounds, people wait until he goes in before paying to enter. They seem to want a wicket to fall even though it is their own side that will suffer. This is cricket as Sachin has known it since the age of 16. He grew up under incredible weight of expectation and never buckled once – not under poor umpiring decisions or anything else. I place him very slightly ahead of Lara because I found him slightly tougher mentally."
Daniel Vettori:
"He has been in form longer than some of our guys have been alive."
Some article:
"The silence in an Indian cricket stadium when he gets out is said to be the loudest in the world."
Adidas print commercial:
"When Sachin plays, big-city roads are easy and trains and buses ply empty at rush hour and the markets take a beating... When Sachin plays, grandmothers who know next to nothing about the game forget knitting and resting and medicines and pray to their gods as they sit frozen, staring nervously at their television screen... When Sachin plays , busy, ambitious executives ignore their calls and cancel their appointments and avoid their clients and miss their deadlines and put their careers on hold... When Sachin plays, college common rooms are dense and tense and hushed as an entire generation sits on pins and needles... When Sachin plays, school-yards are silent and playgrounds are deserted because those who normally make such a racket imitating their hero are all too busy watching him make batting look so ridiculously easy... When Sachin plays, fathers who want the news and daughters and mothers who always want soft stuff and brothers who fight for action, for once all agree on what to watch... When Sachin plays, bowlers and fielders and opposing captains feel their impotence and inadequacy like at no other time and curse themselves and wonder what they can do, if anything, to end the shame, the nightmare, the humiliation... When Sachin plays, commentators and experts run out of adjectives and expressions of wonder and comparisons... When Sachin plays, lay spectators have no need for words at all and just jump and scream and whistle and clap and hug each other and cry and wave their flags and banners and thank their lucky stars for being there... When Sachin plays, India forgets its differences and divisions and teeters between tensions and exhilaration and breaths and laughs and cries as one, as its heart fills with pride and joy and patriotism... WHEN SACHIN PLAYS, ALL ELSE IS IRRELEVANT"
US President Barack Obama:
"I don't know about cricket but still I watch cricket to see Sachin play..Not because I love his play, its because I want to know the reason why my country's production goes down by 5 percent when he is batting."
Virat Kohli after the Indian team carried him on their shoulders after winning the World Cup:
"He has carried the burden of the nation for the last 21 years, it is about time we carry him."
M.S.Dhoni:
"What can i say about him? He has scored more than 17000 odd runs. I have not even faced 17000 balls."
As long ago as 1998, the Bombay poet C. P. Surendran wrote:
"Batsmen walk out into the middle alone. Not Tendulkar. Every time Tendulkar walks to the crease, a whole nation, tatters and all, marches with him to the battle arena. A pauper people pleading for relief, remission from the lifelong anxiety of being Indian, by joining in spirit their visored saviour."
Martin Crowe:
"The shot played on this ball is possible only for the God of cricket."
Ravi Shastri:
"This is the stuff champions are made of. I have to repeat that word time and time again,because that's what he is."
Brian Lara:
"For me, the best batsman in the world is Sachin Tendulkar. I admire Jacques Kallis' consistency and Ricky Ponting, with the purple patch he's going though. Everybody gets 15 minutes of fame. But if there's one person I've admired over a 15-year period, it's definitely Sachin."
Wasim Akram:
"Cricketers like Sachin come once in a lifetime and I am privileged he played in my time."
Will keep adding as and when I find more :)
Sometimes I cry when I am alone