Sachin Tendulkar on Thursday was inducted into the ICC ICC Hall of Fame along with South Africa's Allan Donald and Australia's Cathryn Fitzpatrick in a ceremony in London.
And, Tendulkar, who was present into the ceremony, said it was a special moment and a huge honour to be a part of this incredible list.
"It's a huge honour for me. It is an incredible list and it is a huge honour to be here," Tendulkar said.
The 46-year-old also took the opportunity to thank his family and fans for being a part of this journey and helping him reach where he is today.
"For me to be a part of this, it feels special and number of people have helped me to reach where I am today. If I have to start from where my journey started, I think, I would like to thank all of those who were by my side over a long international career. My parents, brother Ajit and wife Anjali have been pillars of strength while I was lucky to have someone like coach Ramakant Achrekar as an early guide and mentor," Tendulkar added.
Tendulkar also thanked the BCCI and MCA for their support.
"I am also thankful to all my captains, fellow players and the BCCI and the MCA administrators over the years for their support and for making me enjoy the game so much and for so long. I thank the ICC for this appreciation of my cricket career and I am happy to note that cricket continues to grow with three popular formats."
The Little Master is the sixth Indian to be included into the elite list. Bishan Singh Bedi, Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar were the first three to make the list in 2009 and Anil Kumble joined them in 2015. Rahul Dravid was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year in 2018.
Tendulkar's inclusion came this late because of ICC's induction rules. The ICC guidelines say that a player cannot be inducted into the Hall of Fame until and unless it has been five years since he has retired. Tendulkar's last game was in November 2013 at the Wankhede against West Indies.
The 2011 World Cup-winner in total played a total of 664 international games across all the formats and scored 34,357 runs. He is also the only person to score 100 international centuries and the first person to score a double century in ODI cricket.
