Players not willing to don it, Sachin’s jersey as good as retired

New Delhi : The No. 10 jersey that Sachin Tendulkar made his own may not be seen on an Indian player in the future with the Indian cricket board (BCCI) claiming that cricketers are unwilling to don it out of respect for the icon despite the absence of any plan to formally retire it.
Tendulkar retired in 2013 and since then, the No.10 jersey has been used only once —Shardul Thakur wore it earlier this year on his ODI debut during the tour of Sri Lanka.
However, the 26-year-old pacer was trolled on social media for donning the jersey, and Thakur later explained that he picked the number for numerological reasons.
“It’s an individual choice. If players don’t want to wear a certain number, one can’t force them. ICC might just tell you that a team can’t officially retire a jersey but it would never tell you that it’s mandatory to wear that number,” said a BCCI official.
“BCCI has not taken any such call (retiring the No.10 jersey). It’s a very informal thing among players. Also you don’t want young players to be abused like it happened with Shardul Thakur,” he said, referring to the trolling Thakur was subjected to for wearing the jersey.
There is no precedence of a jersey number being retired in honour of a player in international cricket. Tendulkar’s IPL team, the Mumbai Indians, had, however, retired the No. 10 shirt in his honour.