History Prof Builds Unique Altar To ‘God Of Cricket’

On November 16, 2013, ‘God’ said farewell to cricket. Sachin Tendulkar played his last Test match at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, retiring from a legendary career in international cricket.

That historic day inspired Vasisht, a professor in Calicut, Kerala, to create a library on the cricketing great. Named ‘Sachin’s Gallery’, the library is housed at Malabar Christian College, where Vasisth is the Head of Department, History.

“I started collecting books on Sachin Tendulkar. I contacted my journalist friends and publishers and they willingly extended their support for this initiative,” Vasisth informed.

The library contains 60 books on Sachin published in 11 languages including English (“the language of Indian cricket”). The others are Odia, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Gujarati and Assamese.

Vasisth praised Sachin as an ambassador of cricket who united a vast country like India. “Sachin dedicated his life to the game, to his country. His sportsmanship broke the barriers of caste, religion, language and culture. Therefore, the main purpose of the library is to promote the message of ‘Cricket for National Integration’,” he said.

Sachin’s Gallery is attached to the main library of Malabar Christian College and primarily caters to students on campus. “However, it is also open to outsiders. They can come here for the purpose of references on Sachin,” the professor informed.