The greatness in that milestone was that it took almost 4 decades for someone to achieve that for the first time. And now, just 8 years after it was first done, we have witnessed 7 more double hundreds already in ODI cricket!

So what changed suddenly? Did batsmen become better at techniques or the cricket pitches and cricket rules are made more suited for batting?

Yeah, many would say that. But the fact is, it was ‘that’ first double hundred by Sachin Tendulkar that changed the way players thought. Before Tendulkar achieved it, a double hundred in ODI was something that batsmen would fantasize about. But now, they have a practical example of someone already achieving it. Not in fantasies, but in reality! They now have a reason to believe, that if someone has achieved it, so can they!

And this is true not just in cricket but in almost any great feat that people have ever achieved – be it in athletics or in entrepreneurship or climbing Mt. Everest and so on! Once someone does it, there are number of others achieving it too. The first ever four-minute mile runner, Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister when proclaimed that he was going to run a mile in under four minutes, even doctors at that time said it was physically impossible. But against all odds, when he achieved it in 1954, there were many who did the same within years. And now there are over 1400 male athletes who have done it already!