Sachin Tendulkar phoned mid-show after Mark Waugh all-time XI snub; David Lloyd chat sparks drama: ‘He’s gone!’

India batting legend Sachin Tendulkar received a surprise phone call from David Lloyd in the middle of a podcast after former Australia cricketer Mark Waugh left him out of his all-time XI, and what followed was pure comedy.

Across Tests and ODIs, an all-time XI almost invariably includes Tendulkar. The leading run-scorer in international cricket history and the holder of numerous batting records, he remains one of the first names on such lists even more than a decade after retirement. Tendulkar is the most capped player in international cricket and the only batter to have scored 100 international centuries.

However, during a discussion on an episode of Stick to Cricket, Waugh omitted Tendulkar from his all-time XI, prompting former England captain Michael Vaughan to urge Lloyd to call the Indian great live on the show. Lloyd obliged, dialing Tendulkar and introducing himself repeatedly as “Bumble,” only for the call to be abruptly disconnected. “He’s gone,” Lloyd quipped, triggering laughter from the panel.

Tendulkar finished his international career with 34,357 runs from 664 matches across formats before retiring in 2013 following a home Test against the West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

India star Virat Kohli is the closest active challenger to Tendulkar’s run tally. Kohli currently sits second with 28,091 international runs, over 6,000 short, and has time until the 2027 World Cup, which is widely speculated to be his international swansong. During a recent ODI game against New Zealand in Vadodara, Kohli went past Kumar Sangakkara's tally of 28016 runs to climb to the second spot.

Kohli had already eclipsed Tendulkar’s ODI centuries record during the 2023 World Cup, pushing the mark to 53. In Tests, England’s Joe Root also looms as a statistical threat, trailing Tendulkar by fewer than 2,000 runs, though still 11 centuries behind.

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