Sachin Tendulkar

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Sachin Tendulkar

Source: [1], February 15 2006

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (born 24 April, 1973) is an Indian cricketer, universally acknowledged as one of the best batsmen of the modern era. He currently holds the record for the most number of runs in One-Day Internationals, and the most number of centuries scored both in One-Day Internationals and in Test cricket. He made his international debut against Pakistan in 1989 at sixteen, becoming India's youngest Test player. Primarily a top-order batsman, Tendulkar has occasionally proven a useful slow bowler. He received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honour, for 1997-1998, and the civilian award Padma Shri in 1999. Tendulkar appeared on the front cover of the Indian edition of TIME magazine in 2002 when he was chosen as one of its "Asian Heroes". His prowess has earned him the nicknames "Little Master" (also accorded to Sunil Gavaskar) and "Master Blaster" (once used for Viv Richards).

Early Days

Born in Mumbai (then Bombay) into a middle-class Saraswat Brahmin family, Sachin Tendulkar was named after his family's favourite music director Sachin Dev Burman. He went to Sharadashram Vidyamandir School where he started his cricketing career under coach Ramakant Achrekar. While at school, he was involved in a mammoth 664 run partnership in a Harris Shield game with friend and team mate Vinod Kambli. In 1988/1989, he scored 100 not-out in his first first-class match, for Bombay against Gujarat. Aged 15 years 232 days, he was by some distance the youngest player to score a century on debut.

Sachin played his first international match against Pakistan in Karachi, facing the likes of Wasim Akram, Imran Khan, Abdul Quadir, and Waqar Younis. He scored just 15 runs, being bowled by Waqar Younis, who also made his debut in that match. It was an inauspicious start, but Tendulkar 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 fell for 88 in a Test match, John Wright, who would later coach India, pouching the catch that prevented Tendulkar from becoming the youngest centurion in Test cricket. The long anticipated maiden Test century came in England's tour in 1990 but the other scores were not remarkable. Tendulkar truly came into his own in the 1991-1992 tour of Australia that included a brilliant century on the fast and bouncy track at Perth. 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 first ODI century came on September 9, 1994 against Australia in Sri Lanka at Colombo. It had taken Tendulkar 79 ODIs to score a century.

Sachin Tendulkar is the only player to score a century while making his Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy debut.

Wisden named Tendulkar one of the Cricketers of the Year in 1997, the first calendar year in which he scored 1,000 Test runs. He repeated the feat in 1999, 2001, and 2002.

Tendulkar also holds the record for scoring 1,000 ODI runs in a calendar year. He has done it six times - 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2003. In 1998 he made 1,894 ODI runs, still the record for ODI runs by any batsman in any given calendar year.

Personal Life

Sachin Tendulkar married Anjali Mehta, the paediatrician daughter of Gujarati industrialist Ashok Mehta, in 1994, some years after they were introduced by mutual friends. They have two children, Sara (born October 1997) and Arjun (born 23 September, 1999). Marriage and fatherhood have reinforced the social values instilled by his parents; Tendulkar now sponsors 200 under-privileged children every year through Apnalaya, a Mumbai-based NGO associated with his mother-in-law, Annabel Mehta. He is reluctant to speak about this, or other charitable activities, choosing to preserve the sanctity of his personal life despite the overwhelming media interest in him. Tendulkar has been seen taking his Ferrari 360 Modena for late-night drives in Mumbai. (Gifted by Fiat through Michael Schumacher, the car became notorious when Tendulkar was given customs exemption; Fiat paid the dues to end the controversy.)

Famous Innings

Test Cricket

Runs	Against	Venue (Year)	Result
119 not out	England	Manchester (1990)	Drawn
148	Australia	Sydney (1991-92)	Drawn
114*	Australia	Perth (1991-92)	Australia
122	England	Birmingham (1996)	England
169	South Africa	Cape town (1996-97)	South Africa
155 not out	Australia	Chennai (1997-98)	India
136	Pakistan	Chennai (1998-99)	Pakistan
155	South Africa	Bloemfontein (2001-02)	South Africa
176	West Indies	Kolkata (2002-03)	Drawn
241 not out	Australia	Sydney (2004)	Drawn

^* Tendulkar lists this innings, played on a bouncy WACA pitch when he was only 18 years old, as his best batting performance.

One-Day Cricket

Runs	Against	Venue (Year)	Result
90	Australia	Mumbai (1996 WC+)	Australia
104	Zimbabwe	Benoni (1997)	India
143	Australia	Sharjah (1998)	Australia
134	Australia	Sharjah(1998)	India
98	Pakistan	Centurion (2003 WC)	India
141	Pakistan	Rawalpindi (2004)	Pakistan
123	Pakistan	Ahmedabad (2005)	Pakistan
93	Sri Lanka	Nagpur (2005)	India

⁺WC-World Cup

Achievements

File:Tendulkar.jpg

Sir Garfield Sobers handing over the Man of Tournament trophy to Sachin Tendulkar at the 2003 World Cup

File:Sachin Tendulkar.png

Sachin Tendulkar's career performance graph.

Test Cricket

Highlights of Tendulkar's Test career include:

• Highest number of Test centuries (35), overtaking Sunil Gavaskar's record (34) on 10 December, 2005 vs Sri Lanka in Delhi.
• Played in the highest number of Cricket Grounds - he has played Test Cricket on 52 different grounds, ahead of Azharuddin (48), Kapil Dev (47), Inzamam-ul-Haq (46) and Wasim Akram (45).
• 4th highest tally of runs in Test cricket (10,156) at an outstanding average of 57.05 (highest among those who have scored over 10,000 Test runs) as of December 2, 2005
• He is the fastest to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket history. He holds this record along with Brian Lara. Both of them achieved this feat in 195 innings.
• Only second Indian to cross 10,000 runs in Test matches.
• He has 37 wickets in Tests (14 Dec 2005), though his bowling averages are above 40.
• Second fastest player to reach 9000 runs (Brian Lara made 9000 in 177 innings, Sachin in 179.)

ODI

Highlights of Tendulkar's ODI career include:

• Played more matches than any other cricketer
• Most Man of the Matches (50) awards
• Most runs (14,009 as of 7th February, 2006)
• First cricketer to cross 10,000-run mark in ODIs
• Only cricketer to cross 14,000-run mak in ODIs
• Most centuries (39)
• Only player to have over 100 innings of 50+ runs as of February, 2006
• Apeared on the most grounds (89 different grounds)
• Strike rate of over 86% over 350 matches
• Most centuries vs. Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
• Over 100 wickets (140 as of 7th February, 2006)
• Highest batting average among batsmen with over 7,500 ODI runs (as of February 7 2006)
• Highest individual score among Indian batsmen (186* against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1999)
• Most runs (1732 at an average of 59.72) in World Cup Cricket History
• Player Of The Tournament in the 2003 Cricket World Cup.

Miscellaneous

• Sachin Tendulkar is the first batsman to have been declared run out by a third umpire in 1992 aginst South Africa in South Africa.
• He was the first overseas cricketer to play for Yorkshire CCC in 1992.

Man of the Match Awards

Test Cricket (10)

Date	Against	Venue
August 9 1990	England	Old Trafford
February 11 1993	England	Chidambaram Stadium
October 25 1995	New Zealand	Chidambaram Stadium
March 6 1998	Australia	Chidambaram Stadium
January 28 1999	Pakistan	Chidambaram Stadium
October 29 1999	New Zealand	Sardar Patel Stadium
December 26 1999	Australia	Melbourne Cricket Ground
February 24 2000	South Africa	Wankhede Stadium
October 30 2002	West Indies	Eden Gardens
January 2 2004	Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground

Criticism and Recent Performance

The case against Sachin Tendulkar's recent performances was summed up by no less than Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in its 2005 edition: "Apart from a glorious, nothing-to-lose 55 against Australia on a Mumbai terrortrack, watching Tendulkar became a colder experience: after his humbling 2003, he seemed to reject his bewitching fusion of majesty and human frailty in favour of a mechanical, robotic accumulation."

The criticism must be seen against the backdrop of Tendulkar's performance through the years 1994-1999, coinciding with his physical peak, at age 20 through 25. In 1999, Tendulkar was told to open the batting at Auckland against New Zealand in 1994[2]. He went on to make 82 runs off 49 balls. This was the beginning of a glorious period, culminating in the Australian tour of 1998-1999, following which Australian spinner Shane Warne ruefully joked that he was having nightmares about his Indian nemesis.

Tendulkar's batting slumped in 1999. A chronic back problem flared up when Pakistan toured India in 1999, with India losing the historic Test at Chepauk despite a gritty century from Tendulkar himself. Worse was to come as Professor Ramesh Tendulkar, Sachin's father, died in the middle of the 1999 cricket World Cup. Tendulkar, appointed captain once again, then led India on a tour of Australia, where the visitors were blown away by the newly-crowned world champions.

Tendulkar lost the captaincy to Sourav Ganguly in 2000. He played a minor part in the Indo-Australian encounters of 2001, hailed as one of the greatest series in Test history. The batting heroics of V. V. S. Laxman and a rejuvenated Rahul Dravid carried the day for India at a memorable Test in Eden Gardens, along with the dramatic spin of Harbhajan Singh. The drawn series as India toured Australia in 2003-2004 again saw Dravid and Laxman coming to the fore, helped with superb bowling from Anil Kumble and Ajit Agarkar. Tendulkar could make his mark only in the last Test of the series, with a double century in Sydney.

Tendulkar then made 592 runs in 10 innings in the 2003 World Cup, helping India reach the finals. His World Cup campaign included 5 fifties and 1 century. A swashbuckling 98 against Pakistan helped ensure that India's arch-rivals were eliminated from the tournament.

Tennis elbow then took its toll on Tendulkar. He was struggling to be fit for the home Test series against Australia. However, he overcame the injury, and displayed proof of it in fine fashion scoring a double hundred against minnows Bangladesh.

Of late, as Wisden noted, Tendulkar has not been his old aggressive self. His batting seems to lack the exciting flair of Virender Sehwag, or the classic technique of Rahul Dravid. Expert opinion is divided on whether this is due to his increasing years or the lingering after-effects of injuries over 17 years at the highest level. On 10 December 2005, at Feroz Shah Kotla, he delighted his fans with a record-breaking 35th Test century, against the Sri Lankans. But doubts were raised once again when he averaged a mere 21 over three Test innings when India toured Pakistan in 2006. The subsequent criticism led former Pakistani opener Saeed Anwar to remind cricket fans that "form is temporary but class is permanent".

On 6 February 2006, Tendulkar scored his 39th ODI hundred, in a match against Pakistan. Tendulkar now has 16 more ODI tons than the man who is second on the list of ODI century-makers, Sourav Ganguly. He followed this up with a run-a-ball 42 in the second ODI against Pakistan on 11th Feb.

External links

• Cricinfo Profile
• BBC's article on Tendulkar after 2000-01 Border-Gavaskar Trophy
• Sachin Tendulkar's ODI Statistics
• Sachin Tendulkar's Test Statistics