Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

 

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (born April 24, 1973) is a living cricket legend and member of the Indian cricket team since 1989. He made his international debut against Pakistan in 1989 at the age of 16. He is widely regarded as one of the best batsmen of all time and possibly the greatest of his era. Sir Donald Bradman, the Australian great said of Sachin, "He reminds me of myself".

Born in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) into a middle class family, Sachin was named after his family's favorite musician Sachin Dev Burman. He played his first international match against Pakistan in Karachi facing up to the likes of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. He scored just 15 runs and was bowled by Waqar Younis, who also made his debut in that match. It was an innings very different from how the rest of his career went. He followed it up with his maiden test fifty a few days later at Faisalabad. However he could not get a century in that series. His One-day International(ODI) debut on December 18 was equally disappointing where he was dismissed without scoring a run again by Waqar Younis. The series was followed by a non-descript tour of New Zealand in which he did not make remarkable contribution. In the tour of England in 1990 he scored his maiden test century but the other scores were not remarkable. It was in the 1991/1992 tour of Australia that he made his mark as a remarkable batsman. 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.

His maiden ODI century came on September 9, 1994 against Australia in Sri Lanka at Colombo.

He was named by Wisden as one of the Cricketers of the Year 1997 which was the first calendar year in which he scored a 1000 test runs. He re-emulated the feat in 1999, 2001 and 2002.

Sachin's fame in his own country is such that he is virtually a prisoner in his own home with his appearances in public causing near-riots amongst fevered fans. He is known to take his car for late-night drives around the city as one of the few chances to escape the protective bubble he is forced to exist within. Sachin is married to his childhood friend Dr. Anjali. He has a five year old daughter Sara and a son Arjun, who is three.

Perhaps the biggest reminder of his fame, Sachin was recently made a textbook lesson in Indian schools so that children can draw inspiration from his achievements.

Australian bowling great Shane Warne who is among Wisden's list of five greatest cricket players in 21st century has had a particular bad time against Tendulkar. He described incidents when he got up in the night from dreams where Tendulkar was smashing him around the ground.