Sachin Tendulkar : The God of Cricket
- Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, the cricket legend, was born on 24th April, 1973 in Mumbai.
- It was Sachin’s elder brother, Ajit, who encouraged him to play cricket seriously at the age of 11.
- Ramakant Achrekar, a famous cricket coach, coached Sachin at Shivaji Park in Dadar, Mumbai.
- At the early age of 15, Sachin was selected to represent Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy but he was not selected in the final 11.
- During the 1987 World Cup, Sachin was the ball boy for the match between India and Zimbabwe.
- It was in 1988 Sachin was selected in the Ranji Trophy and made his debut against Gujarat, scoring 100 not out and becoming the youngest Indian to score a century.
- He was then selected by Dilip Vengsarkar to play for the team when he saw Sachin play easily against the best fast bowler during that time, Kapil Dev.
- Sachin set a world record of 664 runs in partnership with his school friend Vinod Kambli in an inter-school competition in 1988.
- In 1989, at the young age of 16, Sachin made his Test Cricket debut for India against Pakistan and he became Indian cricket’s favorite player by hitting a century in his debut match.
- Sachin Tendulkar never played in the under 19 team and made it straightaway to senior cricket.
- It was Shane Warne’s debut match and Sachin scored a extraordinary 148 runs at the age of 18 and this was followed by another century in Perth, which is supposed to be the most difficult pitch to bat.
- Sachin since then made and beaten several records in the cricketing world. He has 51 hundreds in Tests, out of which 6 are double hundreds, 49 One Day International hundreds, out of which 4 are over 150. He holds the record for the highest number of 150s hit in ODIs. He was the first to hit a double century in an ODI.
- Not only a batsman, Sachin has also been a successful bowler and his best bowling figures in an ODI are 5-32 at Kochi in 1998 against Australia.
- In 1992 Sachin became the youngest player to reach 1000 runs in Test cricket.
- In the 1996 World Cup, Sachin was the lead run scorer which a score of 523.
- Sachin’s cricketing skills and technique have often been compared with Don Bradman, another legendary cricketer.
- In October 1995 Sachin signed a Rs. 31.5 crores contract with WorldTel, making Sachin the richest cricketer in the world at that time.
- In 2005 Sachin became the fifth man to score 10,000 Test runs with a score of 52 against Pakistan and later became the first cricketer to score 15,000 runs in Test Cricket.
- In September 2010 Sachin became the first individual, without an aviation background, to be awarded the rank of Group Captain by the Indian Air force.
- Sachin, in March 2012, scored his 100th International hundred against Bangladesh in Dhaka.
- Sachin holds the record for being the first for reaching 30,000 International runs, for taking 150 wickets and scoring more than 15,000 runs in ODIs and for making the most number of Test appearances at 200.
- Sachin has never touched a century mark in Tests or ODIs at Lord’s, England.
- Sachin is famous as a bowler as well, known as a partnership breaker, and can bowl medium pace, leg spin and off spin.
- Sachin is the only Indian cricketer to have a waxwork at Madame Tussaud’s wax museum.
- Sachin has always been a right hand bowler and batsman but he uses his left hand to eat and write.
- Sachin is known by the following nicknames: Little Master, Little Champion, Master Blaster and sometimes God of Cricket. He retired in 2013.
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