Sachin debuted for India in 1989, against Pakistan in Pakistan at a very young age of 16
To the man whose drives are straight as Arjuna’s arrow, punches as solid as Zeus’s.
thunderbolt still calm as Buddha”, happy birthday to the “God of Cricket”, “Master
Blaster”, Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin Tendulkar is widely considered one of the greatest.
cricketers to play the game. Born on 24 April 1973, to a Maharashtrian Brahmin family.
His father, Ramesh Tendulkar, was a Marathi-language novelist and poet while his
mother, Rajni, worked in the insurance company. Tendulkar’s father named him after his
favourite music director, Sachin Dev Burman.
Sachin Tendulkar was a bully at a young age and used to pick fights in his school. On a
Sunday evening Sachin and his two friends, Avinash and Sunil, decided to pluck mangoes.
from the trees as everybody would be busy watching ‘Guide’ on Door darshan.
Coincidently Sachin and his one friend sat on the same branch. The branch couldn’t take.
the weight and they fell. Then Sachin’s brother decided to introduce him to a cricket
coach, Ramakant Achrekar, at Shivaji Park. Achrekar would put keep a “one-rupee coin.”
on top of the stumps, and the bowler to dismiss Tendulkar would get the coin. He would
get the coin if Tendulkar completed the session without getting dismissed. Tendulkar
won 13 coins by not getting out through the whole session and he considers it his most
prized possession.
Sachin debuted for India in 1989, against Pakistan in Pakistan at a very young age of 16.
Waqar Younis said, “I never realized he would become the greatest name in the coming
years”, as the latter got out for 15 on his debut. In the same series, Sachin got by a
bouncer bowled by ‘Wasim Akram’, right on his nose. Sachin recalled the incident saying
that at that time he didn’t put the safety grill on his helmet. There were stories of the
ball hitting batsmen’s faces and “either it makes your career or breaks your career”, but,
luckily for him and the country, it made his career. Navjot Singh Sidhu said in an
interview recalling the above incident, “As the time I reached the non-striker’s end I hear
a squeaky voice, mai khelega, mai khelega”. That shows Sachin was a compassionate and
determined man from a very young age.
In the 90s whenever Sachin was out on a tour, he would collect the video cassette from
the video director of the matches. Then coming back home he and his brother ‘Ajit’
would go ball by ball analysing every ball bowled and shot played.
In a long and great career, Sachin had a couple of extended poor patches, including one
in 2006, which came right after his tennis-elbow woes. The period contained his record
35th Test hundred, which took him past Sunil Gavaskar’s tally, but the next 11 innings
saw him garner zero fifties. The period ranged across Test series against Pakistan and
England, and he managed a high score of 34 in them. He slowly got back to form in South
Africa, but couldn’t score a century until mid-2007.
Sachin Tendulkar is the only batsman with 100 centuries to his belt. Sachin scored his
first century against England at Old Trafford on August 14, 1990; he made 119 not out
saving India in that Test match. Sachin later went on to score ‘99’ more centuries in his
career the last being against ‘Bangladesh’, making him the only cricketer to achieve the
feet. Sachin is only the second batsman to score 150 against all Test-playing nations, the
first being Rahul Dravid. Sachin is also the first batsman to score a double century in an
ODI, scoring 200 not out against South Africa, in Gwalior.
Sachin is a big foodie and enjoys his meal time. When he was at Shivaji Park, a person
named Jaya had a stall of vada pav. Sitting on the ground Sachin would eat 4-5 vada pav
at a time there. Vada pav is his comfort food. Not only eating but cooking also interests
him. He learned to make “fish curry” from his mother to impress his wife ‘Anjali’, which
turned out to be good. Sachin finds cooking very relaxing. Once on a “New Year’s Eve”
Sachin cooked “baingan ka bharta” (mashed eggplant) for around 50 people. “It was
challenging but, turned out well”, said Sachin.
Sachin Tendulkar is the recipient of many honours including “Padma Vibhushan, Padma
Shri, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award”, etc. In 2013 after his retirement, Sachin was
awarded India’s highest Civilian award “Bharat Ratna”, by the then President, Pranab
Mukherjee. Sachin became the youngest and the first athlete to be awarded, Bharat
Ratna.
Although Sachin has stayed away from all the controversies, he is criticized for “statpadding (playing for your benefit and always seeing yourself on the scorecard)”. this
criticism arises when the fans believed that Sachin failed to win matches for India, and
his most of the centuries came when India was on the losing side. Well for the believers
that Sachin failed to win matches for India might surprise them. “Out of 49 centuries
Sachin has scored in ODIs, India has won 33 matches.” Out of 51 centuries by Sachin in
the Tests 20 came in winning cause, while 20 others came in matches that were drawn.
So, India lost only 11 Tests in which Sachin scored a century.
Sachin was the highest run in the “world cup” twice. First, in the 1996 world cup where
he scored 523 runs in 7 matches and India reached the semi-finals. Then in 2003, Sachin
scored 673 runs in 11 matches, helping India reach their 2nd “world cup final”. After a
bad 2007 world cup, everybody thought, that was Sachin’s last world cup. But God has
some other plans and Sachin played the 2011 world cup, which was played in India. A
perfect way to thank and honour the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time) of cricket.
A fan of Sachin writes, “With your retirement, the baton of awe-inspiring and
revolutionary batting had been passed since to new kids on the block who across the
globe are busily hitting six sixes an over and hitting a lofted six off of a straight drive. But
none of this would have been possible if you, Sachin sir, had not invented modern
batting in the first place. Your genius illuminated the world of cricket like an enormous
comet; well, it’s still blazing away today”
