Date of Birth: April 24, 1973
Place of Birth: Mumbai
Major Teams: India, Mumbai
Batting Style: Right -Hand Batsman
Bowling Style: Right Arm Medium, Leg Break, Right Arm Off Break
ODI Debut : India v Pakistan at Gujranwala, 2nd ODI, 1989/90
Test Debut : India v Pakistan at Karachi, 1st Test, 1989/90
Height : 5'5
Early days
Born in Mumbai (then Bombay) into a middle-class 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. At 15 years and 232 days he was the youngest to score a century on debut.
International career
Sachin played his first international match against Pakistan in Karachi in 1989, facing the likes of Wasim Akram, Imran Khan, Abdul Qadir, and Waqar Younis. He made 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. 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.
Highlights of Tendulkar’s Test career include:
Rated as the second best batsman of all time (next to Don Bradman) by Wisden [1][3]
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).
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.
4th highest tally of runs in Test cricket (10,323)
Career Average 55.79 - Has the highest average among those who have scored over 10,000 Test runs
Second Indian to make over 10,000 runs in Test matches.
Has 37 Test wickets (14 Dec 2005)
Second fastest player to reach 9000 runs (Brian Lara made 9000 in 177 innings, Sachin in 179.)
Highlights of Tendulkar’s ODI career include:
Played more matches than any other cricketer
Most Man of the Match (50) awards
Appeared on the most grounds (89 different grounds)
Most runs (14,146 as of 15th February, 2006)
Most centuries (39)
Most centuries vs. Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
First cricketer to cross 10,000-run mark in ODIs
Only cricketer to cross 14,000-run mark in ODIs
Only player to have over 100 innings of 50+ runs as of February, 2006
Over 100 wickets (141 as of 15th February, 2006)
Highest batting average among batsmen with over 10,000 ODI runs (as of March 17, 2006)
Highest individual score among Indian batsmen (186* against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1999)
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.
In 1998 he hit 9 ODI centuries, the highest by any player in an year.
World Cup
Most runs (1732 at an average of 59.72) in World Cup Cricket History
Player Of The Tournament in the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
673 runs in 2003 World Cup, highest by any one in a single Cricket World Cup
Miscellaneous
Sachin Tendulkar is the first batsman to have been declared run out by a third umpire in 1992 against South Africa in South Africa.
He was the first overseas cricketer to play for Yorkshire CCC in 1992.
Oddly, Wisden does not include any innings by Tendulkar among its list of 100 greatest Test batting performances.
