When the gallery at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai greeted the god of cricket with a deafening roar for one last time, a bunch of youngsters here in the capital city set off on a bike rally in honour of Sachin Tendulkar on Friday.
The rally, taken out from Museum Junction to Shangumugham with the tagline ‘Trivandrum Salutes Sachin’, was organised by ‘Balance Sheet’, a community of the alumni of the Department of Commerce at Mahatma Gandhi College here.
Anoop M S, one of the organisers, said that the idea popped up when cricket buffs of the group demanded to organise a programme to commemorate the master blaster’s 200th and last test match.
“We first planned a cycle rally. But after taking into consideration its practical difficulties, we moved on to a bike rally. As many as 30 members of the group offered their participation instantly and the rest were members of the public who came to know about the event through social media,” he said.
“Balance Sheet has been organising various programmes ever since its inception and it enjoys quite a fan following. We have been receiving a great response from the social media websites. Many have approached us after seeing the posters to participate and some offered us blessings,” he added.
Much buzz has been going on in connection with the final match of Sachin Tendulker’s cricket career, against West Indies, being held at Wankhede Stadium. Social networking sites and online forums have been filled with posts about the player who enjoys the greatest fan base in the country.
Various programmes have been organised by fan groups in South India also to commemorate the last match of the cricket legend. Programmes were organised at Technopark in his honour.
Sachin scored 74 runs in the first innings of the second test against West Indies at Wankhede Stadium in what could be his final outing in international cricket.
“This must have been the last innings of Sachin, a player who has inspired generations. And he must have fallen short of a century in his farewell match, but the spirit of a multitude of his fans will never go down. He will stay in our hearts forever,” said Rohit Mohan, who was part of the programme.