NEW DELHI: India’s record-breaking batsman Sachin Tendulkar is to be conferred with membership of the Order of Australia, visiting Prime Minister Julia Gillard said in New Delhi yesterday.
Gillard, currently on a three-day state visit to India, told reporters that Tendulkar deserved the “special honour” because he was a “very special cricketer”.
“Cricket is of course a great bond between Australia and India. We are both cricket-mad nations,” she said.
“I am very pleased that we are going to confer on Sachin Tendulkar the membership of the Order of Australia.
“This is a very special honour very rarely awarded to someone who is not an Australian citizen or an Australian national.”
The award will be conferred on the 39-year-old Tendulkar during Australian minister Simon Crean’s upcoming visit to India, Gillard said.
There was no immediate comment from Tendulkar, who is in South Africa representing the Mumbai Indians team in the Twenty20 Champions League. Tendulkar has scored a world record Test (15,553) and one-day (18,426) runs and has also compiled an unprecedented 100 international centuries.
West Indies batting great Brian Lara was honoured with the membership of the Order of Australia in 2009.
Former attorney-general Soli Sorabjee is the only other Indian to have received the award.
Tendulkar’s popularity in Australia was cemented when legendary cricketer Don Bradman said he was reminded of his own batting after watching the Indian play.
Meanwhile, former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe has been diagnosed with cancer, leaving his family “in shock”, the batting great’s manager has revealed.
Crowe, 50, was still coming to terms with the news he had the cancer lymphoma, his manager Louise Henderson said.
“The family is still in shock and obviously dealing with the understanding that life as they know it for the unforeseeable future is different,” she said in a statement late Monday. Henderson did not provide details of how advanced Crowe’s illness was, saying the family had requested privacy.
Crowe, a cousin of Hollywood actor Russell Crowe, played 77 Tests for the Black Caps, averaging 45.36 with the bat. His 17 Test centuries is still a New Zealand record.
He worked as a television commentator after retiring from the Black Caps in 1995, with an attempted comeback to first class cricket in Auckland last year cut short by injury. New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White said the qualities which made Crowe such an outstanding batsman would help him in his battle with the disease.
“Not only was he probably our greatest ever batsman, he was probably the most courageous and determined batsman ever to play for New Zealand,” he told TVNZ.
“His determination is never in question. Our thoughts and feelings are with him and his family and we wish him all the best for his recovery.”Agencies
