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As He Retires, Cricket Superstar Gets India's Highest Honor

Students in Ahmadabad, India, honored cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar in their own way earlier this week.
Siddharaj Solanki
/
AP
Students in Ahmadabad, India, honored cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar in their own way earlier this week.

Indian cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar has indeed left the pitch for the last time, now that his national team's match against the West Indies is over (India won easily, 495-182).

As predicted, the West Indies ran out of batsmen on Saturday and never came close to erasing India's lead — effectively ending the competition on Day 3 of what could have been a five-day match.

On his way into retirement, the "little master" has been awarded the Bharat Ratna, which the Times of India describes as the nation's "highest civilian honor." He's the first "sportsman" to receive that award.

Tendulkar, 40, is to cricket in India what Babe Ruth was to baseball in the U.S. He's also one of the highest-paid athletes in the world — ranking No. 51 on Forbes' latest list, with about $22 million in earnings.

India's Tv9 Maharashtra has posted a video on his emotional departure from the game. It's not in English, but you'll certainly get the drift.

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
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