sachin tendulkar

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born on April 24, 1973 in Mumbai, India. He went to Shradashram Vidyamandir, a high school in Mumbai, where he began his cricketing career under his coach Ramakant Achrekar. He attended the MRF Pace Foundation during his schooldays to train as a fast bowler, but Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee, who saw him training, was not much impressed and suggested that Tendulkar should focus on his batting instead. As a young boy, Tendulkar would practice for hours at the net, and was driven hard by his coach Achrekar.

While at school, his extraordinary batting skills got noticed by the sports circuit. People felt that the young boy would soon become one of the greats in cricket. In the 1988 season, he scored a century in every inning that he played. In one of the inter school matches that year, he had an unbroken 664-run partnership with friend and team mate Vinod Kambli.

When he was 14, Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar a great Indian batsman of that time, gave him a pair of his own light pads. This touching gesture greatly encouraged the budding cricketer, who 20 years later broke Gavaskar’s world record of 34 Test centuries.
In 1988, when he was just under 16, he scored 100 not out in for Bombay against Gujrat. This was on his first-class debut. He then scored a century in his first appearance in the Deodhar and Duleep Trophy. Mumbai captain Dilip Vengsarkar picked him up after seeing him batting Kapil Dev in the nets. That season he was Bombay’s highest run-getter. In the Irani Trophy final, He made an unbeaten century. He scored a century in all three of his Irani Trophy, Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy debuts, and became the first player to do so. He was selected for the tour of Pakistan next year.

Cricket Career

At the very young age of 16, Sachin played his first Test match against Pakistan in Karachi in 1989. In this Test, he received several blows to his body at the hands of Waqar Younis, a pace bowler. He made just 15 runs. In the last test in Sialkot, he had a bloody nose from a bouncer, but he went on playing. He scored better in the subsequent games, scoring 53 runs of 18 balls at Peshawar.

He made his maiden test century (119*) against England at Old Trafford thus becoming the second youngest player to score a test century at the age of 16. Wisden described that innings as one of the disciplined mixed with maturity.

In the 1990 Test in England he scored a century at Old Trafford. The English were highly impressed by his disciplined display of immense maturity. He played many types of strokes. His off-side shots from the back foot greatly impressed the English. Though short in height, he confidently faced short deliveries from the English pace bowlers. His great performance made him look the embodiment of Gavaskar, India’s former famous opener.



During the 1991-1992 tour of Australia Tendulkar scored and unbeaten 148 in Sydney and another century on a bouncing pitch a Perth.


From there on Tendulkar rose through the ranks and went on to become one of the greatest to have played the game of cricket.

His maiden ODI century came in his 79th match against Australia on September 9, 1994 in Srilanka. Imagine that and now he is has the highest number of centuries both in tests and ODI. His good form didn’t stopped there as he went on to become the leading run scorer in 1996 world cup.

Tendulkar achieved his peak form in the year 1998 when he showed his strength and easiness to murder spin attack. He made a mark on Shane Warne and Gavin Robertson mauling them by occasionally dancing down the track and drive over the infield. He scored three consecutive centuries in the series against Australia.

In the 2003 Cricket World Cup, he made 673 runs in 11 matches which enabled India reach the final. Although Australia won the trophy Tendulkar was given the Man of the Tournament award.


Shortly after this Tendulkar developed a tennis elbow and he was out of cricket for a while. But by 2005, he was back in form. He played well against Australia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.


Tendulkar performed very well against Bangla Desh and he was adjudged the Man of the Series in the Future Cup against South Africa. Sachin Tendulkar scored his 99th international hundred against England on 12th March 2011 in their World Cup encounter. Since then he was in constant pressure for getting to the landmark of 100 international century.

Media was abuzz with only one issue whenever he went out to bat. That took the toll on his batting and he was a failure in the next 33 innings (22 in Test and 11 in ODIs). He came close to scoring 100th ton onseveral ocassion but got dismissed under pressure.

He had a bad outing in England Tour followed by a dismal performance against Australia in Australia in 2011-12. Predictions of his retirement palns were doing rounds and everyone was asking the same question.

But the moment finally arrived in Mirpur, Dhaka in Bangladesh. It was yet another outing for the little master but this time he didin't dissapointed and reached his 100th International century against Bangladesh on 16th March 2012. He scored 114 runs off 147 deliveries with 12 Fours and 1 Six.

Awards & Achievements

Today Sachin Tendulkar holds every record possible in cricket. He is also ranked as the second best test batsman and ODI batsman of all time by Wisden.
He was the first to reach 10,000 runs in ODI and 12000, 13000 and 14000 runs in Test Cricket.
He also holds the record of highest run scorer in ODI and Test.
He has the highest number of centuries in ODI (48) and Test (51).
Highest Individual score in an ODI innings (200*) against South Africa.
First man on the planet to score a double century in ODI.
Player of the Tournament in ICC Cricket World Cup 2003

His awards include:
Arjuna Award, 1994
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna 1997
Wisden Cricketer of the Year, 1997
Padma Shri, 1999
Maharashtra Bhushan Award, 2001
Padma Vibhushan, 2008

Personal Life

In 1995, Sachin married Anjali, a doctor and the daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta. They have two children, Sara and Arjun. Tendulkar now sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year through a Mumbai-based NGO.