Glad my record was broken by Sachin: Saaed Anwar

Saeed Anwar says he has no regrets at losing his ODI record as it's broken by a great like Sachin

Saeed Anwar says he has no regrets at losing his ODI record as it's broken by a great like Sachin

Since retiring from the game, former Pakistan batting great Saeed Anwar is full-time into preaching and religious studies. He has very little to say on cricket, a sport he made special with his punitive ways.

Pakistan's Saeed Anwar during his record-breaking one-day innings of 194 against India at Chennai in May, 1997

It was on a hot May evening in 1997 at the famous Chepauk Stadium in Chennai that Saeed showed his true class with a record breaking knock of 194 runs against a helpless Indian side captained by Sachin Tendulkar.

That innings of 194 remained the highest score in one-day internationals alongwith Zimbabwe's Charles Coventry until yesterday when in an act of poetic justice, Tendulkar scored 200 not out against South Africa at Gwalior.

"If any person deserved to do better than me it was Tendulkar, I am happy for him. There are no real regrets on my long-standing record being broken. I would have regretted it had that Zimbabwean batsman (Coventry) got the record last year, but not now," Saeed told MiD-DAY.

The stylish left hander, who dazzled the cricket world with his grace and fluency said he didn't have time to watch Tendulkar's entire innings, but he could imagine how the little master would have played. "I have played a lot against him. His hunger and passion for cricket and towards batting is simply amazing. I can tell you it rubbed off on a lot of our players as well when I played," said Saeed before recalling his Chennai effort. "He was leading the side and a lot of us always felt that the captaincy was getting to him. He was under a lot of pressure. I remember he failed in that match and with our team scoring over 300 runs, he was frustrated and disappointed at the way things went that day," Saeed said.

Saeed retired after the 2003 World Cup in which he scored a hundred against India at Centurion. He is not surprised at Tendulkar's consistency.

"I think the quality of bowlers has gone down in recent years and Tendulkar has matured and blossomed into a world-class player so he is hitting peak form. His consistency and hunger for runs is at times scary," he said.