Records last only for a certain period of time
The cricketing world has seen many players achieving iconic status in their respective areas. While the current generation had its share of icons in Sachin, Warne and Gilchrist to name a new, their predecessors like Sunil Gavaskar, Deniss Lilee and company had achieved iconic status during their eras.
Prior to their successors erasing their records icons like Sunil Gavaskar and Deniss Lilee were revered not only in their own countries but by millions of fans worldwide. They were all household names in a generation where newspapers were the only source of information. Many in those days thought that records set by greats like Sunil Gavaskar and Deniss Lillee will never ever be broken much in the same way millions of today feel that records set by Sachin Tendulkar and Muthiah Muralidaran will never ever be broken.
When Sunil Gavaskar retired on 5th Nov 1987 he was the only player in the history of game to have scored 10000 runs in Test Matches. Today Gavaskars world record tally of 10,122 runs which was once considered to be a record that will never be broken has been surpassed by 7 players. When Gavaskar retired from one dayers in 1987, he occupied the sixth spot in all time list in one dayers with 3092 runs but today Gavaskars tally is good enough to be in 104th position in all time. When Boycott retired from Test Matches in 1982, his tally of 8114 runs was a world record, but now he finds himself in 18th spot in all time list.
The worlds premier one day batsman Vivian Richards was once the world record holder but now his tally of runs is good enough to be in 33rd spot in all time list. Vivian Richards retired with a world record tally of 6721 ODI runs in 1991 which now pales in comparison to Sachin Tendulkars world record tally of 17000 runs which is the new benchmark. Dennis Lillee retired from Test Matches in 1984 with a world record tally of 355 wickets which at that point of time was considered impossible to beat because getting to 300 wickets those days in Test Matches was considered to be a monumental achievement. Today Lilee finds himself in 16th spot in all time list of wicket takers in Test Matches as Muralidharan career tally of 786 test wickets is more than double of Lilees then world record tally of 355.
People say that time is the biggest healer and in sports it can well be said that records last only for a certain period of time. Players who have set records should bask in their glory during their playing days, because most of the records will be broken at at some point of time by somebody else
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