Sachin Tendulkar joins Kapil Dev and others in Lord's portrait legacy, but with a big difference

Time of India

4 days ago

A portrait of
Sachin Tendulkar
was unveiled in the MCC Museum at Lord's just before play began on the opening day of the England v India Men's Rothesay Test match.
The artwork, created by artist
Stuart Pearson Wright
, is currently on display at the museum but will be relocated to the Pavilion later this year.
Tendulkar, widely regarded as one of the greatest batters in the history of cricket, had an international career that spanned 24 years from 1989 to 2013. During this period, he amassed a staggering 34,357 runs across Test matches, One-Day Internationals and T20 Internationals for India. This figure is more than 6,000 runs ahead of the next highest scorer, Kumar Sangakkara, who ended with 28,016 runs.
The portrait was painted from a photograph taken by Pearson Wright in Tendulkar's home in Mumbai 18 years ago. As the painting process evolved, so did the artist's technique. The final piece was rendered in oil on abraded aluminium. The abstract background was chosen to depict Tendulkar's timeless presence, free from the constraints of era or location.
This portrait is now the fifth of an Indian player included in the MCC's Collections. Four of them – of Kapil Dev, Bishan Singh Bedi, Dilip Vengsarkar and now Tendulkar – have been painted by Pearson Wright. While the earlier portraits were full-length, Tendulkar's is different: a larger-than-life image of his
head and shoulders
.
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The Lord's Portrait Programme, now three decades old in its current form, traces its roots to the Victorian period when MCC first began collecting cricket-related art and artefacts. The MCC Museum, established in the 1950s, holds the distinction of being the oldest sporting museum in Europe. Its Long Room Gallery remains one of the most iconic gallery spaces in sport.
At present, the Club houses about 3,000 pictures, of which nearly 300 are portraits.
Speaking at the unveiling, 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."
Stuart 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.'
He added: '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.'