Sachin Tendulkar on the Cover of Wisden Cricketer's Almanack

The greatest cricketing career of all time came to an end on November 16, 2013, when Sachin Tendulkar received a hero's goodbye at his home ground, the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. 

Sachin Tendulkar,the legendary batsman touched the pitch and then his heart, walked through a guard of honour and delivered a straight-from-the-heart farewell speech that has remained etched in the memory of every cricket fan. 

But the actual end of his batting career came a day earlier, when his final Test knock ended on 74 when he edged spinner Narsingh Deonarine to West Indies captain Darren Sammy at first slip. A hush descended over the ground and everyone present at the ground looked on in disbelief as the little man began his final trudge back to the pavilion. 

Near the boundary line,Sachin  Tendulkar raised his bat to the adoring crowd one last time before climbing up the stairs and disappearing behind his teammates. 

That moment of raising the tricolour- labelled bat has been immortalised on the traditional yellow cover of the 2014 edition of cricket's 'bible', the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, which will be published in London on Thursday April 10,2014

Wisden, which has a segment dedicated to Tendulkar's farewell, adds: "Tendulkar played Test matches in front of the most demanding fans in the world for 24 years."
The almanack also compared Tendulkar's record with two greats of the new generation, England skipper Alastair Cook and Australia captain Michael Clarke.
"If further proof was required of just how astonishing that was, it came at Perth in December, when for a few moments, one Cook and one Clarke added up to exactly one Tendulkar: 200 Test caps, 15,921 runs and 51 hundreds."

Wisden down the years

1864: Wisden publishes first Cricketers' Almanack
1889: Wisden selects its first Cricketers of the Year
2000: Wisden names its Five Cricketers of the Century: Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Jack Hobbs, Shane Warne and Sir Viv Richards
2009: Claire Taylor(England) is the first woman to be named as a Cricketer of the Year
2013: Wisden publishes 150th Edition