New Delhi (PTI): The cricket fraternity on Friday paid glowing tributes to Sachin Tendulkar on his historic feat of becoming the highest run-getter in Test cricket with some former players hailing him as a "genius" and others urging him to continue playing for a few more years.

The master batsman, who came into the second Test at Mohali against Australia with just 15 runs short of the milestone, created history when he hit debutant pacer Peter Siddle for three runs to overtake Brian Lara's record of 11,953 runs.

Chief national selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth congratulated Tendulkar for the feat and said the master blaster should keep going for some more time and guide the youngsters in the team.

"It is fantastic to know that an Indian is the highest run getter in the world. In the past we had Sunil Gavaskar and Tendulkar has done it again today for us...It is a great sense of pride for the Indians.

"He has not changed a bit. He still has the powering passion, which amazes me. He is the same old humble person even today," Srikkanth said.

"I would like to tell him, keep going. India needs you for some more time because the team is going through a bad phase and you need a guy like Tendulkar to guide the youngsters," he added.

Former chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar also congratulated Tendulkar and said he should continue playing for at least two more years. "My heartiest congratulation to him. I am very proud of the fact that he is an Indian and he has done it today.

"He is a genius. He is in great form, he has been working hard and I feel he should be playing for at least a year or two," Vengsarkar said.