Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is a former Indian cricketer widely
acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen in One Day International
and
second only to Don Bradman in the all-time greatest list in Test cricket,
popularly holding the title "God of Cricket" among his fans.
In
2002, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (world’s
most famous cricket reference book published annually in U.K )ranked him the
second greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Don Bradman
( Australian Cricketer, died in 2001 at
the age of 92), and the second greatest one-day-international (ODI) batsman of
all time, behind Viv Richards (west indies cricketer).
Tendulkar was a
part of the 2011 Cricket World Cup winning Indian team in the later part of his
career (India won the tournament, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final in Mumbai, thus becoming the
first country to win the Cricket World Cup final on home soil), his first such
win in six World Cup appearances for India. He was also the recipient of
"Player of the Tournament" award of the 2003 Cricket World Cup held in South
Africa.
After a few
hours of his final match on 16 November 2013, the Prime Minister's Office announced the
decision to award him the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.[17][18] He
is the youngest recipient to date and the first ever sportsperson to receive
the award
Early years
Tendulkar was
born at Nirmal Nursing Home on 24 April 1973. His father Ramesh Tendulkar was a
reputed Marathi novelist .[29] Ramesh
named Tendulkar after his favourite music director, Sachin Dev Burman.
As a young boy, Tendulkar was considered a bully, and often picked up fights
with new children in his school. To help curb his mischievous and bullying tendencies,
Sachin’s brother Ajit introduced him to cricket in 1984. He introduced the
young Sachin to Ramakant Achrekar, a famous cricket coach and a
club cricketer of repute, at Dadar.
Tendulkar would practice for hours on end in the nets under the guidance of
Archrekar.
Besides school
cricket, he also played club cricket, and later went on to play for the Cricket Club of India. At the age of 14, Sachin
joined MRF Pace foundation in Chennai to get trained as bowler, but Australian
fast bowler Dennis Lillee suggested that Tendulkar focus on his batting
instead. A couple of months later, former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar gave
him a pair of his own ultra-light pads. "It was the greatest source of
encouragement for me," Tendulkar said nearly 20 years later after
surpassing Gavaskar's world record of 34 Test centuries.
In 1987,
Tendulkar was selected to represent Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy,
India's premier domestic first-class cricket tournament, for the
1987–88 season. In 1988, aged just 15 years and 232 days, Tendulkar made his
debut for Mumbai against Gujarat at home and scored 100 not out in
that match, making him the youngest Indian to score a century on first-class
debut. He stepped into international cricket in 1989, playing his first Test
against Pakistan and was bowled by Waqar Younis. Tendulkar's performance
through the years 1994–1999 coincided with his physical peak, in his early
twenties. He scored his first ODI century in1994 against Australia in Sri Lanka.
It had taken him 79 ODIs to score a century.
Tendulkar took
over as captain in 1996 with huge hopes and expectations succeeding Azharuddin.
Tendulkar's two tenures as captain of the Indian cricket team were not very
successful.
Achievements/Honors
With a current
aggregate of 15,470 Test runs, he surpassed Brian Lara's
previous record tally of 11,953 runs as the highest run scorer in test matches
in the second Test of Australia's 2008 tour of India. He
also holds the record of highest number of centuries in both Test (51) and ODI
(49) cricket.On 16 March 2012, Tenduklar scored his 100th international hundred.
In
recognition with his impact on sport in a cricket-loving country like India,
Tendulkar has been granted the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award, Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan by
the Government of India. He was also chosen as one
of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1997
and is ranked by the Wisden 100 as the second best test batsman and ODI
batsman of all time.
In 2012,
Tendulkar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha,
the upper house of the Parliament of India
Retirement
On 23 December 2012, Tendulkar announced his retirement from ODIs. Tendulkar
has already stated that he will not be playing T20 Internationals. In May, 2013, Tendulkar
revealed his retirement from IPL. Sachin tendulkar was ranked 78th richest
sportsman in the world according to the Forbes' list of world's highest-paid
athletes for the year 2012.[18] In
June 2013 list, Forbes ranks
Sachin at 51st position in highest paid athletes list, with his total earnings
were estimated to be USD 22 million.[19
Philanthropy
Tendulkar
sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year through Apnalaya, a
Mumbai-based NGO associated with his mother-in-law, Annabel Mehta.
No wonder why he is called Master Blaster
