Presenting Sachin Tendulkar, possibly the Greatest Batsman in the history of world cricket. He is the only one who has ever made a double century in an ODI (One Day International)!
The Little Master (the title earlier used for addressing another cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar too) or the Master Blaster has been called the second greatest Test Cricket Batsman (after Donald Bradman) and also the second greatest ODI batsman behind Viv Richards! (Source: Wikipedia here.)
Sachin Tendulkar’s Eye-popping Cricket Data:
- First Player to score 50 centuries in International Cricket.
- Scored most runs in Test Cricket.
- First Player to score 10,000 runs in ODIs
This of course is just the tip of his colossal cricket records iceberg.
Sachin Tendulkar’s Crispest and Shortest Biography on the Web:
Sachin was born on 24 April 1973, in Mumbai, the most populated city of India. (That he found space to play cricket amazes me.) He trained under Ramakant Acherkar, who was a superb motivator and would’ve excelled as a Motivation Guru (akin to Shiv Khera) – but then who am I to question his choice of career. Reverting to Sachin, who was acknowledged as a child-prodigy (luckily, and not as a product of voodoo, as it often happens with child-prodigies) was given a pair of pads by Sunil Gavaskar.
Unlike most sport celebrities, Sachin didn’t mess up his life by marrying a model or a film-star, instead he married a pediatrician Anjali (the daughter of a Gujarati businessman – who says that a Sportsman has to be born without any financial acumen?)
Read a slightly longer biography of Sachin here.
Interesting Infobytes about Sachin:
- When the Little Master was little, his coach (same gentleman who didn’t become the motivation guru) would place a coin on the stumps of the wicket and Sachin would get the coin if he stayed on until the end of the session. Sachin won 13 such coins (and so now on – never call thirteen an unlucky number – do you read me, dear readers-o-mine!)
- Sachin is 5 ft 5 inches tall (?) What? That isn’t tall? He’s two inches taller than me – and I am TALL!
- Sachin topped the list of Income Tax Payers in Indian Cricket, in 2009.
- Sachin asked for a Duty Waiver on his Ferrari
Sachin’s Cricket Career:
Well…I am not too much into cricket – but I know that Tendulkar’s rise brought on the golden era of Indian Cricket. He wasn’t too successful as a Cricket Captain but he had the grace to accept his failing. Around 2003, Sachin’s career peaked out. In 2004, he also suffered from a Tennis Elbow, which kept him out of the game for a long time. In 2006, his popularity took a dip when he could managed only a single run off 21 balls against England at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Sometime around 2007, he staged a comeback.
A Famous Quote about Sachin:
“Cricket is my religion and Sachin is my God”
Sachin Tendulkar’s Honors/Awards:
Among others,
- Padma Vibhushan
- Padma Shri
- Khel Ratna
- Arjuna Award
- Honorary Group Captain by the Indian Air Force (Does he get the benefits and is he eligible for the pension too?)
Sachin Tendulkar, the Doll of Advertisers:
Among others, Sachin has done ads for:
Sachin Tendulkar the Batsman and Shafali the Caricaturist:
(Building connections where none exist.)
- Sachin writes with his left hand and bowls and bats with his right.
- Shafali writes with her right hand and draws and paints with her left.
What?! I didn’t say anything.
Shafali's Caricatures, Portraits, and Cartoons 