The ICC Cricket Hall of Fame welcomed 3 new members in a ceremony that was hosted in London on 18th July 2019. The new entrants are India’s Sachin Tendulkar (India’s cricketing icon), Australia’s Cathryn Fitzpatrick (the fastest bowler in women’s cricket for a time-span of 16 years) and South Africa’s fastest bowler Allan Donald. 

Donald is referred to as the ‘White Lightening’, owing to his record of 330 and 272 Test and ODI wickets respectively. Fitzpatrick is the eighth woman to be conferred with the award, with her record tallying 180 wickets in 109 matches.

To be eligible for entry into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame, the player must have played his final international match at least 5 years back. During November 2013, Tendulkar retired, with his dual record tally of 15,921 runs and 18,426 runs in Tests and ODIs respectively. Tendulkar is the sixth Indian to join the prestigious ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Upon receiving the honor, Tendulkar expressed thankfulness to his coach, Ramakant Achrekar. Also, he reminisced about the contributions of his parents, his wife Anjali, brother Ajit, cricket colleagues and India’s Board of Control for Cricket and Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA).

Before attending the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame ceremony he visited the Madame Tussauds Museum in London too. Here, he posed with his wax figure and took selfies with his fans who mobbed him. 

Tendulkar was India’s first sportsperson to have his wax model at Madame Tussauds that was introduced in April 2009.