Sachin Tendulkar honoured twice at Lord's before Day 1: Rings iconic bell, unveils portrait of himself at MCC Museum

Sachin Tendulkar honoured twice at Lord's before Day 1

Sachin Tendulkar is present at Lord's for the third Test between India and England. Ahead of the encounter, Tendulkar rang the bell to signal the start of Day 1 of the Test at the venue. This was the first time the batting maestro rang the bell at Lord's, which is also called "The Home of Cricket".

While the tradition of ringing the bell has been long running, this done by Tendulkar marked a special convergence as the series underway is named after him.

Before doing the honours at Lord's, a portrait of Tendulkar was unveiled in the MCC Museum before play of third Test. The portrait made by artist Stuart Pearson Wright will remain in the MCC Museum until later this year when it will be relocated to the Pavilion.

Tendulkar is one of the greatest batters ever to have played the game. In an international career that spanned 24 years from 1989 to 2013, Tendulkar scored 34,357 runs for India in all three formats combined. This total is over 6,000 than the next highest batter – Kumar Sangakkara with 28,016.

The portrait is painted from a photograph taken by the artist in Tendulkar's home in Mumbai 18 years ago. As the work progressed, so did Pearson Wright's approach, eventually ending with oil on abraded aluminium. The abstract background illustrates Tendulkar's timelessness, unrestricted by any era or specific location.

This is the fifth portrait of an Indian player in MCC’s Collections, four of which (Kapil Dev, Bisham Bedi, Dilip Vengsarkar and Tendulkar) have been painted by Pearson Wright. Unlike the previous paintings, which were full-length, the portrait of Tendulkar is a larger-than-life image of his head and shoulders.

The Lord’s Portrait Programme has been running in its current form for three decades, but MCC has been collecting art and artefacts since the Victorian period, opening a dedicated museum in the 1950s making it the oldest sporting museum in Europe. The Long Room Gallery is the oldest and most iconic gallery in sport.

The Club currently houses around 3,000 pictures, nearly 300 of which are portraits.

Sachin Tendulkar said: "It’s a huge honour. In 1983, when India won the World Cup, it was my first introduction to Lord’s. I saw our captain, Kapil Dev, lift the trophy. That moment sparked my cricketing journey. Today, with my portrait going up inside the Pavilion, life feels like it’s come full circle. When I reflect on my career, it brings a smile to my face. This is truly special."

Pearson Wright said: “It was clear that MCC didn’t want this portrait to be in the same format as the previous Indian cricket portraits I made, so a fresh approach was taken with this one. I decided on a composition which focused more on Sachin’s head and also using a heroic larger-than-lifesize scale to give the painting a sense of gravitas and power.”

“I have often painted a portrait with an abstract background, often a plain colour, rather than paint a rendition of an interior or exterior space. This is largely to give focus to the subject’s features and to minimise a context which might define the subject in some way.”

Charlotte Goodhew, MCC Collections and Programmes Manager, said: “We are very proud to continue to build on our portrait collection at Lord’s and it is wonderful to add such a transcendental figure as Sachin Tendulkar to the names of illustrious subjects for our paintings.

“Sachin is one of the game’s greatest players and an icon in India so it is so exciting to unveil the portrait in the MCC Museum during the men’s Test match between England and India, allowing thousands of cricket fans a chance to see the painting up close.”