Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar is a former Indian cricketer and is regarded as one of the best batsmen in the world. He made his international debut at the age of sixteen and played cricket for India for close to twenty-four years and has the record of scoring 100 international centuries and the first batsman to score a double century in One-Day International (ODI). He has also served as the Indian captain. He has played 664 international matches and scored 34,357 runs. He retired from ODIs in December 2012, and he announced his retirement from T20 cricket in October 2013. On 16th November 2013, while playing his 200th test match against West Indies in his home ground Wankhede stadium in Mumbai he announced his retirement from the test as well as all forms of cricket. Born on 24th April 1973 in a middle class Maharashtrian family in Bombay, Sachin Tendulkar was the youngest of the four children to his parents, Ramesh Tendulkar and Rajni Tendulkar. His father was a famous Marathi novelist whereas his mother worked in the insurance company. They named him Sachin after their favorite music director Sachin Dev Burman. Sachin has three elder siblings Ajit and Nitin are his two elder half brothers and Savita is his elder half sister and they were his fathers children from his first marriage. 

Sachin however, has not mentioned this even in his autobiography. He spent his childhood days in Sahitya Sahawas Cooperative Housing society in Bandra East. As a young boy, he was a bully and often had fights with new children in the school. In order to divert him from fights, his elder brother Ajit encouraged him to play cricket and he got him enrolled into the academy of Ramakant Achrekar, a famous cricket coach at Shivaji Park, Dadar. As per the advice of his coach Achrekar, he went to Sharadashrm Vidyamandir High School in Dadar as the school had a rich cricketing tradition. When he was in school, he also started his cricket coaching under the guidance of Achrekar at Shivaji Park in the morning and evenings.

Later, he started practicing for hours and if he became exhausted, Achrekar would put a one-rupee coin on the top of the stumps and the bowler who dismissed Tendulkar would get the coin and if Tendulkar manages to play the entire session and doesnt get dismissed, he would be the recipient of the One Rupee coin. Tendulkar has 13 such one rupee coins that he has received from his coach and he considers them as the most prized possessions. Due to the hectic schedule of school and cricket, he moved to his aunts place in Dadar. He was 11 years old when he started his practice as a cricket batsman and at the age of 14, he along with his friend Vinod Kambli was involved in a record 664-run partnership in an inter school match against St. Xavier's High school in 1988. In the match, Tendulkar scored 326* runs in the innings and over a thousand runs in the tournament. This was the record partnership in any form of cricket until 2006 when it was broken by two U-13 batsmen in Hyderabad.

After this achievement, he became a very famous cricketer and an icon in the school groups. Besides school cricket, he also played club cricket and represented John Bright Cricket Club and later played for the Cricket Club of India. In 1987, he attended MRF Pace Foundation in Madras to train as a fast bowler but Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee was unimpressed with his bowling and suggested him to focus on batting.

In January 1987, he was also a substitute for Imran Khans team in an exhibition game at Brabourne Stadium in Bombay and a couple of months later, he received a pair of ultra light pads from Sunil Gavaskar. After high school, Tendulkar for his further studies enrolled at Kirti College where his father also taught. In 1987 Cricket World Cup, he served as a ball boy in the Semifinal match in Bombay between India and England. He was selected in the Ranaji Ranji Trophy, Indias domestic First Class cricket tournament representing Bombay. However, he wasnt included in any of the matches in the playing XI.

A year later in December 1988, he made his debut against Gujarat at home and scored a 100* in the match making him the youngest Indian to score a century on his debut in First Class cricket. He followed this by scoring a century in his first Deodhar trophy and Duleep trophy, which are also Indian domestic tournament. In the 1988-89 season, he was Bombays highest run scorer, scoring 583 runs at an average of 67.77. He was picked up twice by for the young Indian team to tour England under the Star Cricket Club banner in 1988 and 1989. He made his first double century 204* for Mumbai playing against Australia at the Brabourne stadium in 1998. With his brilliant performances and records in the first class matches, he got selected into the national team just after one season and he made his international test debut against Pakistan at the age of 16 in November 1989. He couldnt score many runs in the tournament, but despite his low scores he got noticed for his batting techniques and dedication and he made his debut in ODI in 1989.

Sachin Tendulkar became the youngest player to debut for India in Tests as well as ODIs at the age of 16 years. He made 148 runs and 114 runs in another match during the 1991-92 tour of Australia and played against great bowlers of that time like Merv Hughes, Craig Mcdermott and Bruce Reid. In 1994, in an ODI against New Zealand he was asked to open the batting and he scored 82 runs of just 49 balls. In the same year he scored his first ODI century against Australia.

In the 1998 Australia tour of India, the series was hyped as Sachin versus Warne contest and Sachin blasted Warne in the series and made two centuries in three test series and helped India win the series. He took over as the captain in 1996 but wasnt successful as the teams performance was low. He gave up his captaincy in 1997. He was again made as the captain in 1999, and his second term wasnt successful as well and he gave up his captaincy the same year. In the 2003 world cup, his performance was at its best and he scored 673 runs in 11 matches and he won the Man of the Tournament Award despite Indias loss in the World Cup finals.

Sachin went through a difficult phase from 2004 to 2007 but after going through this phase, he regained his form in 2007 and completed 11,000 runs in tests and became the leading run scorer for India. In the 2007-08 Border-Gavaskar Trophy he scored 493 runs in just four tests and demonstrated his finest batting skills. He was again in his best form in 2011 World Cup in which he made 482 runs which also included two centuries. India won the World Cup final against Sri Lanka and it was the first World Cup victory for Sachin Tendulkar. His form flattered after the World Cup and he retired from all forms of cricket in November 2013 and received a very emotional response from his fans during his farewell speech.

Sachin was a part of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and played for Mumbai Indians and was also the captain of the team. In 2011 IPL, Tendulkar scored his maiden T20 century against Kochi Tuskers Kerala and scored 100* out of 66 balls. He scored 1723 runs in 51 matches in IPL and became the second highest run scorer in the competitions history. He retired from IPL in 2013 and from 2014, he was appointed as the Icon as well as coach of Mumbai Indians.Sachin married Anjali, a pediatrician on 24th May 1995 at the age of 22. The couple has two children Sara and Arjun. Arjun is a left hander batsman and a left arm spinner and has been included in the U-14 probables of the Mumbai Cricket Association.

For his brilliant batting techniques and one of the best careers in cricket world, Tendulkar has won many awards and recognitions. He is the first ever to score a double century and the only player to score 100 centuries and over 30,000 runs in all forms of international cricket. He also holds the record for the most number of runs and most number of centuries in both ODI as well as Test cricket. He scored 15921 runs and 51 centuries in Test Cricket and 18,426 runs and 49 centuries in ODIs. He is also the only cricketer to play 200 test matches. He was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, Indias highest sporting award in 1997-98 for his achievements in cricket. He received the Arjuna award in 1994 and won the Padma Shri, Indias fourth highest civilian award in 1999 and Padma Bhushan, Indias second highest civilian award in 2008.

In 2013, he was announced for the Bharat Ratna award, Indias highest civilian award. He is the youngest person and the only sportsperson to receive this award. He is also the recipient of the 2010 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for Cricketer of the year by ICC. In 2012, he was nominated for Rajya Sabha and in the same year he was also named as the Honorary Member of the Order of Australia.