Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar (born 24 April 1973) is a former Indian cricketer and captain, widely regarded to be one of the greatest cricketers of all time and by many as the greatest batsman of all time.

He took up cricket at the age of eleven,

made his Test debut on 15 November 1989 against Pakistan in Karachi at the age of sixteen, and went on to represent Mumbai domestically and India internationally for close to twenty-four years.

Tendulkar was born at Nirmal Nursing Home on 24 April 1973.

His father, Ramesh Tendulkar, was a well-known Marathi novelist and his mother, Rajni, worked in the insurance industry.

Ramesh named Tendulkar after his favourite music director, Sachin Dev Burman. Tendulkar has three elder siblings: two half-brothers Nitin and Ajit, and a half-sister Savita.

They were Ramesh’s children from his first marriage.

He spent his formative years in the Sahitya Sahawas Cooperative Housing Society, Bandra (East).

As a young boy, Tendulkar was considered a bully, and often picked up fights with new children in his school. He also showed an interest in tennis, idolising John McEnroe.

To help curb his mischievous and bullying tendencies, 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 Shivaji Park, Dadar.

In the first meeting, the young Sachin did not play his best.

Ajit told Achrekar that he was feeling self-conscious due to the coach observing him, and was not displaying his natural game.

Ajit requested the coach to give him another chance at playing, but watch while hiding behind a tree.

He was also coached under the guidance of Achrekar at Shivaji Park in the mornings and evenings.

Tendulkar would practice for hours on end in the nets.

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.

If Tendulkar passed the whole session without getting dismissed, the coach would give him the coin.

Tendulkar now considers the 13 coins he won then as some of his most prized possessions.

Sachin Tendulkar holds the world record for scoring highest number of runs and centuries in both the Test Cricket and the One Day Internationals.

He has scored 15921 runs and 51 centuries in Test Cricket.

While in ODIs, he has scored 18,426 runs and 49 centuries.

He is actively involved with Apnalaya, an NGO, and sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year.

He has also used his popularity to help many other charities raise large amounts of funds for several noble causes including cancer research and education.

In India’s 2001 tour of South Africa in the second test match between India and South Africa at St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth match referee Mike Denness fined four Indian players for excessive appealing as well as the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly for not controlling his team.

Tendulkar was given a suspended ban of one game by Mike Denness in light of alleged ball tampering.

Television cameras picked up images that suggested Tendulkar may have been involved in cleaning the seam of the cricket ball.

This can, under some conditions, amount to altering the condition of the ball.

The match referee Mike Denness found Sachin Tendulkar guilty of ball tampering charges and handed him a one Test match ban.

The incident escalated to include allegations of racism and led to Mike Denness being barred from entering the venue of the third Test match.