BCCI To ‘Unofficially’ Retire Iconic No. 10 Jersey Worn By Sachin Tendulkar
Jersey numbers are so far one of the most curious subjects of the cricket. We all know the significance of Sachin Tendulkar’s No.10 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s No.7, those numbers rose to prominence because of the players who wore them. Even cricket buffs often develop certain emotional attachments to the jersey numbers that are worn by their favorite cricketers.
Out of such things, Sachin Tendulkar’s 10 is the top of everything. Legendary Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar left the pitch years back, and since then, BCCI didn’t grant his number to any of the players. After some considerable time, the jersey number was seen on the young Indian cricketer Shardul Thakur who recently made his debut against Sri Lanka.
Well, this didn’t go well with many, people were irked with this deed of Shardul. But, jersey No. 10 is not just a number, it is an emotion for many cricket fans. The social media was pretty harsh on the rookie Indian pace bowler. In fact, several Indian cricketers like Rohit Sharma also mocked Shardul for the same reason.
Over the years, legendary Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar wore the jersey number 10, and hence the jersey number has attained an iconic stature in Indian cricket. The no.10 jersey is synonymous with Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar, who played his entire limited-overs career with this number on his back.
After the controversy about the Indian legend’s jersey number, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to ‘unofficially’ retire the jersey number 10 for international matches. Hence, it comes as no surprise why the BCCI has decided to unofficially retire the jersey number 10 in the honor of Sachin Tendulkar.
Also, the board has kept in mind that they do not wish to attract any unnecessary controversy because of the same reason. “It unnecessarily creates controversy and players get criticised. So it’s better to retire the number unofficially. Players, though, can wear it when they play for India A or for say a non-international list A match but not during an international,” a BCCI official told.
However, Shardul Thakur did not sport the jersey with any evil intention. He had later stated that the digits of his date of birth (16-10-1991) add up to 28 and 2+8 equals 10. After the controversy, he changed his jersey number to 54 the next time he was drafted in the Indian team.
This is not the first time that a jersey number has been retired by a team or a franchise. Earlier in 2013, Mumbai Indians had retired the jersey number 10 to honor Sachin Tendulkar. In Football, Inter Milan and AC Milan have retired number 4 and 3 respectively as a tribute to their legends Javier Zanetti and Paolo Maldini.