Like throughout his playing career, chants of ‘Sachin, Sachin’ reverberated at the Wankhede Stadium as Sachin Tendulkar walked out for the celebration of the ground’s 50th anniversary. Sachin greeted the audience with folded hands.

One of India’s greatest batters and former captain, Sachin started his career and played most of his early matches at the Wankhede. The stadium has invited him and many other current and former Mumbai cricketers for celebratory events over the past few weeks.

Mumbai Indians posted a video of the moment along with a montage of his time at the ground. Watch it here:

At the event, Sachin spoke about his love for the venue and also revealed why he wanted his last international match, in November 2013, to be hosted here.

“I want my last match to be played in Mumbai for one very important reason,” he said. “At that time, her health was not good enough for her to travel, except to Wankhede. I wanted her to see for herself why I had been traveling all around the world for years, playing the sport I loved. Thankfully, the BCCI graciously accepted my request.”

The ground now has a statue of him outside, which was unveiled in 2023. At that time, he had spoken about his first visit to the ground in 1983, when West Indies visited India after the World Cup. Sachin’s neighbors and friends went together.

“We took a train at Bandra, got off at Churchgate and enjoyed the whole game. And by the way, I sat at the North Stand. We all cricketers know what the North Stand can do. When they get behind the team, no opposition can stop India and Mumbai,” he said in 2023.

“I was a part of the North Stand gang. I also made a lot of noise, enjoyed the game. On my way back home to Bandra, somebody said, ‘achcha manage kiya na?’ [We managed it well, no?]. There were 25 of us and we only had 24 tickets. I asked what did we manage? They replied: ‘Usko Sachin ko chhupa ke le jana pada’ [We had to hide Sachin to take him inside]’,” Tendulkar recalled.