The 10,000 Club

When the world began to realize “the Sachin potential”, first achievement an average cricket fan expected from him was the 10,000 run mark that would equal SMG, the only other Indian to hold this record. I still remember Sunil Gavasker reach 10,000 mark in Ahmedabad against Pakistan in 1987.


After more than 15 years today, at 4.10am EST 16th March, Wednesday, 2005, Sachin reached this land mark by flicking Abdul Razzak to the square leg area. He started his cricketing journey against Pakistan. He reached this land mark against them.

122 Matches,195 Innings ,21 Not out,10025 Runs,Highest:248*,Average:57.61 34-100’s and 40-50’s.

He reached this land mark in the same number of innings as Brain Lara, the only other player currently in action with that many runs. More over Sachin tops the batting average in the 10,000 club at least by 5 points.

Sachin is often compared with Vivian Richards, Especially by many “oldies” and “seniors” they give their esteemed opinion on Sachin, who the hell is Sachin, “அந்த காலத்துல நான் காலேஜுல பாடிக்கும் போது....”

Vivian Richards is great player, he totaled about 8500 runs in 121 Test. This 10,000 by Sachin was in 122 test matches. Basically the technology we have today plays a big role in every game; every coach today has facilities to track/watch a players batting in order to come up with a counter plan. Sachin is the most monitored cricketer today. My point is Today environment is totally different, it is twice competitive than before. Sachin has a combined score around 24,000 runs in both forms of international cricket. Seriously when thinking about it, no one can or should deny this mammoth achievement.

There are also Sachin haters whom I talk to every day, one of them told he scored runs because of team like Bangladesh, Numbers establishes facts. In this 10,000, Sachin has only scored 302 runs against Bangladesh; we need remember the balance 9698 came by playing against other top cricket playing nations. Most of his runs playing against Australia [1859 that includes 7 hundreds and 7 fifties], and he averages about 76.50 against England and 80.29 against Sri Lanka. His lowest averages is again South Africa 37.15,

Age factor: Lara reached this land mark when he was 35 years old, while rest completed this land mark when they were 37, Sachin, 31 years and 326 days. He is the youngest test cricketer to reach this land mark.

Chennai Factor: When it comes to my home town Chennai, his “par” was more than 100, Each time he sets out to bat in MAC, he would score a hundred. He has also scored most of runs in Chennai; He has played 11 innings in Chennai, and scored about 714 runs, with an average of 102. In Sydney Australia has a crazy average of 249.00, in Port of Spain WI he averages about 68.33. Finally Dhaka, let us not go there, it is about 250 and above. Do you know that Sachin has never played in the number 3 position for India?

Any way, to conclude I am sure like me there are many who are proud to have this genius of a cricketer during their times; no one can or should deny his achievement.
Congratulations to Sachin. I wish him all the best towards 15,000.