Internet Desk: Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar on Thursday joined Linkden, global professional network, as an ‘influencer’.
As a LinkedIn Influencer, Sachin Tendulkar will join a select group that includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi, actress Priyanka Chopra, Shashi Tharoor and business leaders like Bill Gates, Founder Virgin Group Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington Founder and CEO Thrive Global, The Jack and Oprah Winfrey Network Chairman and CEO Oprah Winfrey, among others, LinkedIn said in a press release.
In a post titled ‘ My Second Innings’, Tendulkar writes: “It was October 2013 during one of the Champions League games in Delhi. My mornings would start with a gym workout, a routine I had been following for 24 years. But that morning in October, something had changed.” Then he gives a unique perspective as to what made him take the decision to retire in the first place.
“I realised that I had to force myself to wake up and go about my day. I knew that the gym training was a critical part of my cricket – something that had been my life for 24 years. Yet, there was reluctance. Why?” the post reads.
“Were these signs…signs that I should stop? Signs that the game that has been so dear to me, would no longer be a part of my daily routine?”
Sachin further added that another legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar once said that he made up his mind to quit the game when he found himself checking the clock, to see how much time there was left for the lunch and tea intervals.
“Suddenly I knew exactly what he meant. My mind and my body were telling me the same thing. Maybe, it’s time to hang up my boots,” Tendulkar writes.
“I also remembered the words of Billy Jean King, at Wimbledon a few years ago – you will know for sure when to go, it will come from inside you, don’t let the world decide when you have to retire.” “But what will a sportsman do if he’s not a sportsman anymore? How do you prepare for a day when something that consumed each day of the 24 years of your life, isn’t the focus anymore?” he adds.
The 43-year-old further revealed that the biggest change post his retirement has been that he has the freedom to choose what he wants to do.
“My first innings was about chasing my dreams, the second one is about satisfaction. I want to give back to the game that has made me what I am, to society and to the less fortunate. The scope has changed but the objective and drive of doing my best, remains. I’m still learning, still discovering new things, meeting new people, and contributing in my own way, to make things better,” he says.
Tendulkar, who has the record for the maximum number of tons across all three formats of the game, also highlighted his achievements post his cricket years.
“One of the highlights of my post-cricket years has been the adoption of Puttamraju Kandriga, a village in Andhra Pradesh. Seeing the village don a new look after two years of intensive infrastructural development, had a joy that can’t be put into words,” he writes. “A project called ‘Spreading Happiness’ that I am involved in, provides electricity to deprived areas. Arrangements to tap solar energy have been made in over 73 villages and nearly 25,000 people have been impacted by the same. The mission to ‘light up’ homes across the length and breadth of the country will continue.”