Watch: When a teary Sachin Tendulkar dedicated his Test century to 26/11 victims

In the post-match interview in Chennai, an emotional Sachin Tendulkar, who is from Mumbai decided his century to victims of the 26/11 terror attack.

The 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai back in 2008 left a deep impact on a lot of people, including the cricketers. The series between India and England had to be abruptly cancelled in the aftermath of the terror attack with England deciding to return home and the inaugural edition of the Champions League T20 tournament also getting shelved.

The England cricket team were however, brave enough to come back to India for a two-Test series in Chennai and Mohali soon after. In the first Test at Chennai, Sachin Tendulkar scored one of his finest centuries.

The MS Dhoni-led side created history by chasing down 387 in the fourth innings. Tendulkar led the way with a fine knock of 103. He remained unbeaten at the crease and even scored the winning runs.

It was followed by unprecedented scenes as the ground staff at the Cheapuk Stadium in Chennai rushed to the field to express their gratitude to Tendulkar. In the post-match interview in Chennai, an emotional Tendulkar, who is from Mumbai decided his century to victims of the 26/11 terror attack.

Watch the emotional video here…

The legendary Indian batsman said, “What happened in Mumbai was extremely unfortunate. Cricket cannot lessen whatever happened.100 will give some amount of happiness to the people.

“I thank those who stood up to the terrorists and who made sure that they were captured or shot dead. as the terrorists were many. I salute the NSG commandos, Taj hotel staff, police, public and everyone,” said Tendulkar.

Former England pace Steve Harmison who played the Test match revealed in his autobiography that Tendulkar was in tears after the match. In his book ‘Speed demons’, Harmison wrote, “The defeat in Chennai was the only Test loss in my career that I wasn’t massively bothered about. I’m not sure even a scriptwriter could have come up with what happened – Sachin Tendulkar, the great Indian hero, walking off having hit a hundred and the winning runs at the same time.”

Harmison revealed that Tendulkar had visited the English dressing room after the match and thanked them for coming back to India. “He was in tears thanking us in the dressing room. What it meant to him, the great son of Mumbai was everything, and that’s why he was so grateful we’d gone back. It was like it was written in the stars that it should pan out like that. For him into our dressing room and thank us was very moving, very humbling,” said Harmison.