TENDULKAR IS A GLOBAL ICON SAYS MATTHEW HAYDEN

Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden has said that India’s batting great Sachin Tendulkar is a global icon.Matthew Hayden, who announced his retirement from the game last week, has come out in praise of India and the Indian players, most notably Virender Sehwag.“Virender Sehwag is as good as I was. I really admire Virender. He is exactly the brand of cricketer I would love to watch. I always enjoyed playing against him,” Hayden was quoted as saying to a Mumbai daily, DNA.Hayden is only one of three players in world cricket to score four hundreds in successive games thrice.The southpaw, who rates his 380 against Zimbabwe as his best innings ever, rates Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar as the best batsmen of his time and Curtly Ambrose, Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralidaran as the best bowlers of his era.About Tendulkar, the recipient of the Allan Border medal in 2002, Hayden said, “Sachin Tendulkar is a global icon. During our last tour to India I thought Sachin's influence on the group was immense as was his performance. He needed to get runs and he did.”Speaking about another Indian veteran Rahul Dravid, ‘Haydos’ said, “Rahul is one of the great icons and players of world cricket. He is one of the greatest players ever.”