Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar BR (/ˌsʌtʃɪn tɛnˈduːlkər/ (listen); pronounced ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. Nicknamed "The Little Master" and "Master Blaster", he is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all-time highest run-scorer in both ODI and Test cricket with more than 18000 runs and 15000 runs respectively in total. He also holds the record for receiving the most man-of-the-match awards in international cricket. Known for his large fanbase and described by ESPNcricinfo as 'the most worshipped player in the world'.
Tendulkar took up cricket at the age of eleven, made his Test match 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. In 2002, halfway through his career, Wisden ranked him the second-greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Don Bradman, and the second-greatest ODI batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards. Later in his career, Tendulkar was part of the Indian team that won the 2011 Cricket World Cup, his first win in six World Cup appearances for India. He had previously been named "Player of the Tournament" at the 2003 edition of the tournament.
Tendulkar received the Arjuna Award in 1994 for his outstanding sporting achievements, the Khel Ratna Award, India's highest sporting honour, in 1997, and the Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan awards in 1999 and 2008, respectively, two of India's highest civilian awards. A few hours after the end of his last match in November 2013, the Prime Minister's Office announced the decision to award him the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award. As of 2021, he is the youngest recipient to date and was the first sportsperson to receive the award. In 2012, Tendulkar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India.
In 2010, Time magazine included Tendulkar in its annual Time 100 list as one of the most influential people in the world. Tendulkar was awarded the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year at the 2010 ICC Awards. Having retired from ODI cricket in 2012, he retired from all forms of cricket in November 2013 after playing his 200th Test match. Tendulkar played 664 international cricket matches in total, scoring 34,357 runs. In 2013, Tendulkar was included in an all-time Test World XI compiled in 2013 to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, and he was the only specialist batsman of the post–World War II era, along with Viv Richards, to get featured in the team. In 2019 he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
Early years
Tendulkar was born at Nirmal Nursing Home in Dadar, Bombay on 24 April 1973 to a Rajapur Saraswat Brahmin Maharastrian family His father, Ramesh Tendulkar, was a well-known Marathi novelist and poet while 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 by his first wife, who died after the birth of her third child.
Tendulkar spent his formative years in the Sahitya Sahawas Cooperative Housing Society in Bandra (East). As a young boy, Tendulkar was considered a bully, and often picked up fights with new children in his school.
Tendulkar also showed an interest in tennis that was on an equal level to cricket. He particularly idolised American player John McEnroe, and emulated his hero by growing his hair long at the age of 7 or 8 years. At this time, Tendulkar also regularly wore tennis wristbands and headbands, and carried a tennis racquet with him as a sign of his love for tennis.
To help curb his mischievous, bullying tendencies, Ajit Tendulkar, his elder brother introduced Sachin to cricket in 1984. He introduced him to Ramakant Achrekar, a famous cricket coach and a club cricketer of repute, at Shivaji Park, Dadar. In the first meeting, the Sachin did not able to play his best game. 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. This time, Sachin, apparently unobserved, played much better and was accepted at Achrekar's academy. Ajit Tendulkar also had experience of playing cricket in Bombay's Kanga Cricket League.
Achrekar was impressed with Tendulkar's talent and advised him to shift his schooling to Sharadashram Vidyamandir (English) High School, a school at Dadar which had a dominant cricket team and had produced many notable cricketers. Prior to this, Tendulkar had attended the Indian Education Society's New English School in Bandra (East). 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. He moved in with his aunt and uncle, who lived near Shivaji Park, during this period, due to his hectic schedule.
Meanwhile, at school, he developed a reputation as a child prodigy. He had become a common conversation point in local cricketing circles, where there were suggestions already that he would become one of the greats. Sachin consistently featured in the school team in the Matunga Gujarati Seva Mandal (MGSM) Shield. Besides school cricket, he also played club cricket, initially representing John Bright Cricket Club in Bombay's premier club cricket tournament, the Kanga Cricket League, and later went on to play for the Cricket Club of India (CCI). In 1987, at the age of 14, he attended the MRF Pace Foundation in Madras (now Chennai) to train as a fast bowler, but the Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee, who took a world record 355 Test wickets, was unimpressed, suggesting that Tendulkar focus on his batting instead. On 20 January 1987, he also turned out as substitute for Imran Khan's side in an exhibition game at Brabourne Stadium in Bombay, to mark the golden jubilee of Cricket Club of India. A couple of months later, former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar gave him a pair of his own ultra light pads and consoled him to not get disheartened for not getting the Bombay Cricket Association's "Best Junior Cricketer Award" (He was 14 years that time). "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. Sachin served as a ball boy in the 1987 Cricket World Cup when India played against England in the semifinal in Bombay. In his season in 1988, Tendulkar scored a century in every innings he played. He was involved in an unbroken 664-run partnership in a Lord Harris Shield inter-school game against St. Xavier's High School in 1988 with his friend and teammate Vinod Kambli, who would also go on to represent India. Tendulkar scored 326 (not out) in this innings and scored over a thousand runs in the tournament. This was a 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.
