Flashback 10 years of IPL: Mumbai Indians retired the iconic jersey number 10 of Sachin Tendulkar

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has over the years been one of the most entertaining leagues in the world and some of the moments in the league are engraved in the hearts of all the cricketing fans around the world. And Mumbai Indians’ gesture to retire the shirt of the iconic Sachin Tendulkar in 2013 has been the first of its kind in the cricketing world and was truly special.

The Indian Premier League since its inception has been successful in capturing a lot of eyeballs. The months of April and May are the best months for a cricket fan as the India gets ready for the action.

Sachin Tendulkar, in his long and illustrious career, has broken numerous records and is worshiped all over India. Watching the master blaster bat was a treat to the eyes as people used to go to the stadium in numbers just to watch him play.

Tendulkar who wore the jersey number 10 for both India and Mumbai was the captain of the Mumbai franchise and has over 2000 runs in the Indian Premier League. The icon also retired from international cricket in the same year after playing a record 200 test matches for India.

The Mumbai franchise, as a mark of respect to the incredible batsman, started in 2012 a campaign to retire the number 10 jersey.

Mumbai’s fans club wrote on their twitter page after Tendulkar retired from one-day internationals “It’s a message that the No. 10 belongs to the master only. When Sachin can do all this in ODIs for us, can’t we pay him back in a way no Indian sportsman was ever honoured? Let’s #RetireTheJerseyNo10”

“Paltan, tweet with #RetireTheJerseyNo10 and honor the Legend @sachin_rt!,” Mumbai’s official Twitter handle tweeted in 2012.

The campaign took the social media by storm and millions of fans urged the BCCI to retire the jersey honoring the legend. And in 2013, Mumbai declared that they will retire the number 10 jersey, but there have been no words on the same from the BCCI.

Nita Ambani, the Mumbai team owner had quoted “I think it was a befitting tribute to our ‘Master’ as we call him. Winning the IPL as well as the Champions League T20 in the same season (2013) is a great achievement. It’s a very emotional moment for us and we have decided to retire his No. 10 jersey,”

In the 6 seasons of the Indian Premier League Tendulkar has played, he has managed to win the orange cap once scoring 618 runs in the year 2010. He also became the best captain of the season in that year.