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Friday, July 6, 2007

Sachin: The little myestro



Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar born 24 April 1973 is a current Indian cricketer who was rated by Wisden (2002) as the second greatest Test batsman ever after Sir Don Bradman. Wisden also rated him as the greatest ever ODI batsman. He holds multiple records such as the leading Test century scorer, Leading ODI century scorer and the most career ODI runs.
He made his international debut in 1989 and is a perennial crowd-favorite, he is the only Indian cricketer to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honour for his performance in 1997-1998. Many commentators and fellow players regard him as one of the greatest batsmen the game has seen.


Personal life

Born to a middle class family of Rajapur Saraswat Brahmins in Bombay, now known as Mumbai. His father Ramesh Tendulkar, a Marathi novelist named him after his favourite music director Sachin Dev Burman. He was encouraged to play cricket by his elder brother, Ajit Tendulkar. He has 2 more siblings - brother Nitin Tendulkar and sister Savitai Tendulkar. Nitin's son Rohan Tendulkar born in 1990 is also a cricketer and represents Mumbai in junior cricket tournaments.
In 1995, Sachin Tendulkar married Anjali Tendulkar (born 13 feb 1971), the paediatrician daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta. They have two children, Sara (born 12 October 1997) and Arjun (born 23 September, 2000).
Tendulkar sponsors 200 under-privileged children, every year through Apnalaya, a Mumbai-based NGO associated with his mother-in-law, Annaben Mehta. He is reluctant to speak about this, or other charitable activities, choosing to preserve the sanctity of his personal life despite the overwhelming media interest in him.


Career

Early days of cricket
He attended Sharadashram Vidyamandir School where he began his cricketing career under the guidance of his coach and mentor Ramakant Achrekar. During his early days as a schoolboy cricketer he went to the MRF pace academy to train as a pace bowler but was sent back home. The man who turned him back was legendary fast bowler Dennis Lillee who told the young Tendulkar, 'Just focus on your batting'. This simple comment would result in the birth of one of the greatest batsmen of all time.
While at school, he was involved in unbroken 664-run partnership in a Harris Shield game in 1988 with friend and team mate Vinod Kambli, who also went on to represent India. The destructive pair reduced one bowler to tears and made the rest of the opposition unwilling to continue the game. Sachin scored over 320 in this innings and scored 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 under-13 batsmen in a match held at Hyderabad in India. When he was 14 Indian batting maestro Sunil Gavaskar gave him a pair of his used ultra light pads. "It was the greatest source of encouragement for me," he said nearly 20 years later after passing Gavaskar's top world record of 34 Test centuries.


International career
Tendulkar is ambidextrous, he bats, bowls and throws with his right hand, but prefers to write with his left hand. He also practices left-handed throws at the nets on a regular basis. Tendulkar played his first Test match against Pakistan in Karachi in 1989. He made just 15 runs, being bowled by Waqar Younis, who also made his debut in that match. Tendulkar followed it up with his maiden Test fifty a few days later at Faisalabad. His One-day International (ODI) debut on December 18 was disappointing. He was dismissed without scoring a run, again by Waqar Younis. The series was followed by a tour of New Zealand in which he fell for 88 in the Second Test. His maiden Test century came in next tour, to England in August 1990 at Old Trafford. Tendulkar further enhanced his development into a world-class batsman during the 1991-1992 tour of Australia that included an unbeaten 148 in Sydney (the first of many battles against Shane Warne who made his debut in the match) and a century on the fast and bouncy track at Perth. He has been Man of the Match 11 times in Test matches and Man of the Series twice, both times in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia.

At Cricket World Cup 2007in the West Indies, Tendulkar and the Indian cricket team, led by Rahul Dravid had a dismal campaign. Tendulkar, who was pushed to bat lower down the order by the Coach Greg Chappel had scores of 7 (Bangladesh), 57* (Bermuda) and 0 (Sri Lanka). As a result, former Australian captain Ian Chappell, brother of current Indian coach Greg, called for Tendulkar to retire in his column for Mumbai's Mid Day newspaper
Tendulkar was named the man of the Series in the subsequent Test series against Bangladesh.
He scored two consecutive scores of 90+ in the Series against South Africa.
He is now the only cricketer to complete 13,000-14,000 and 15,000 runs in ODI form of the game.


Records


Tests

Tendulkar has played the most number of Test Matches for India (Kapil Dev is second with 131 Test appearances).

Runs Scored:
4th highest tally of runs in Test cricket (10,922). Second Indian after Sunil Gavaskar to make over 10,000 runs in Test matches.
Tendulkar and Brian Lara are the fastest to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket history. Both of them achieved this in 195 innings.
On 3 January 2007 Sachin Tendulkar (5751) edged past Brian Lara's (5736) world record of runs scored in Tests away from home. Tendulkar achieved this in 75 away Test matches while Lara had scored his runs in 66 away Tests.
Career Average 55.44 - the highest average among those who have scored over 10,000 Test runs.
Tendulkar has 4 seasons with 1000 or more runs - 2002 (1392 runs), 1999 (1088 runs), 2001 (1003 runs) and 1997 (1000 runs). Gavaskar is the only other Indian with four seasons of 1000+ runs. Only Hayden and Lara have five seasons with 1000+ runs in International cricket

ODI

Game Appearances:
Matches Played: 388

Runs Scored:
Most Runs: 15,051 Runs (as of 29th June, 2007). He is the leading run scorer in the ODI format of the game and the only player ever to cross the 15,000 run mark. he reached this milestone with a stunning knock of 93 against South Africa to help win the match.


Centuries & Fifties Record:
Most centuries: 41
Only player to have over 100 innings of 50+ runs (41 Centuries and 79 Fifties)(as of 2007)
Fifties: 79. Inzamam-ul-Haq (83) is the only batsmen who has scored more Fifties. Rahul Dravid (79) is tied with Sachin.
Most centuries vs. Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.


Achievements

Awards
1994: Arjuna Award Receipient for achievements in Cricket
1997: Tendulkar was one of the five cricketers selected as Wisden Cricketer of the Year
1997/98: Sachin Tendulkar received India's highest sporting honour - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna
1999: Awarded Padma Shri - India's civilian medal of recognition