CRICKETERS OF INDIA – SACHIN TENDULKAR
INDIAN CRICKETER – SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, born 24 April 1973, is an Indian cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the leading run-scorer and century maker in Test and one-day international cricket. He is the only male player to score a double century in the history of ODI cricket. Tendulkar was an integral part of the 2011 Cricket World Cup winning Indian team at the later part of his career, his first such win in six World Cup appearances for India. He is widely regarded as ‘god of cricket’ in India. Tendulkar has been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan award, India’s second highest civilian award, and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India’s highest sporting honour. Tendulkar became the first sportsperson and the first person without an aviation background to be awarded the honorary rank of Group Captain by the Indian Air Force. He has received honorary doctorates from Mysore University and Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences He won the 2010 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year at the ICC awards.
Tendulkar was born in Bombay (now Mumbai). His mother Rajni worked in the insurance industry, and his father Ramesh Tendulkar, a Marathi novelist, named Tendulkar after his favourite music director, Sachin Dev Burman. Tendulkar’s elder brother Ajit encouraged him to play cricket. Tendulkar has two other siblings: a brother Nitin, and sister Savita. At 14, Tendulkar was a ball boy for the India versus Zimbabwe game at the Wankhede Stadium during the 1987 World Cup. When he was 14, former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar gave him a pair of his own ultra light pads. “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. On 24 May 1995, Sachin Tendulkar married Anjali, a paediatrician and daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta and British social worker Annabel Mehta. They have two children, Sara (born 12 October 1997), and Arjun (born 24 September 1999). Anjali is six years his senior.
Tendulkar sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year through Apnalaya, a Mumbai-based NGO associated with his mother-in-law, Annabel Mehta. Tendulkar is cross-dominant: He bats, bowls and throws with his right hand, but writes with his left hand. He also practices left-handed throws at the nets on a regular basis. Sachin Tendulkar has been sponsored by several brands throughout his career including Boost, Pepsi, Action Shoes, MRF, Adidas, Britannia, Fiat Palio, TVS, ESPN Star Sports, Sunfeast, Canon, Airtel, Reynolds, G-Hanz, Sanyo BPL, Colgate-Palmolive, Philips, VISA, Castrol India, Ujala Techno Bright and Coca-Cola. He has also been a spokesperson for National Egg Coordination Committee, AIDS Awareness Campaign and Luminous India. Sachin Tendulkar has been the subject of various books. The following is the listing of books focused on Tendulkar’s career: Sachin: The Story of the World’s Greatest Batsman by Gulu Ezekiel, The A to Z of Sachin Tendulkar, Sachin Tendulkar – a definitive biography by Vaibhav Purandare, Sachin Tendulkar – Masterful by Peter Murray, Ashish Shukla, If Cricket is a Religion, Sachin is God by Vijay Santhanam, Shyam Balasubramanian.