Sachin Tendulkar: A Fabulous Cricket Player

Sachin Tendulkar is an Indian professional cricket player, considered by many to be one of the greatest batsmen of all time.

Sachin Tendulkar a boy of 16 walks in to bat against the fiery attack of Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram and is hit on the head, even then this little boy goes on to make half century. This boy was none other than the phenomenal Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin Tendulkar, the very name that strikes terror in the hearts of the bowlers all over the world, is regarded as the most accomplished batsman of modern day cricket. Since his debut against Pakistan in 1989, Sachin Tendulkar has been shining like a star in the international cricketing arena.

Achievements and Accolades:

Ever since Sachin made his debut against Pakistan at the age of 16, he has not looked back. Sachin has piled up runs against all teams in the world. Sachin Tendulkar is rightly hailed as the master blaster as he treats most of the bowlers with utter disdain. This man employs almost every shot mentioned in the cricketing manuals. Sachin Tendulkar is capable of tearing apart any bowling attack.

The most fascinating part of Sachin's batting is that he keeps improvising the shots in his armory. In the last 16 years of his carrier, Sachin has won almost every award associated with cricket. At present Sachin is the highest run getter (over 13000 runs) in the one day form of the game and is inching towards becoming the highest run scorer in the test cricket as well. Sachin also has the maximum number of test and one day centuries to his name.

The talent and genius of Sachin Tendulkar was best summed up by the legendry sir Don Bradman when he said that batting style of Sachin Tendulkar reminded him of his own youth.

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

Turning Point

Initially Sachin Tendulkar wanted to be a fast bowler and even undertook trials at the MRF pace foundation, Chennai, but his short height proved to be an obstacle. Changing his school to Shardashram Vidya Mandir and meeting Mr. Ramakant Achrekar (who became his coach) was the turning point of Sachin's cricket career.

Early Promise

Playing for his school, Shardashram Vidya Mandir, Sachin along with his buddy Vinod Kambli set a world record partnership of 664 runs for the third wicket. There was no looking back after that. Sachin became the only player to score a century on debut in all three domestic first class competitions- 100 not out in the Ranji Trophy (Bombay v Gujarat at Bombay 1988-89), 159 in the Duleep Trophy (West Zone v East Zone at Guwahati 1990-91) and 103 not out in the Irani Trophy (Rest of India v Delhi at Bombay, 1989-90).

This was the beginning of what Sunil Gavaskar called an illustrious cricketing genius. Such was the promise and prospect of this little boy that during a local match the umpire deliberately didn't declare him out just to show the class of Sachin to one of his friends, a former cricketer.

Sachin Tendulkar Biography

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born on April 24, 1973, in Mumbai. Sachin's father, Ramesh Tendulkar was a professor of Marathi. Seeing loads of promises in his younger brother, Ajit Tendulkar (Sachin's brother) decided to guide Sachin in the early stages of his life. Ajit took his kid brother to Mr. Ramakant Achrekar, arguably the best cricket coach of his times. It was because of cricket that Sachin had to change his school and had to stay at his uncle's place.

Mr. Achrekar was thoroughly impressed by this little boy. Achrekar could see the world champion in this little boy. He was satisfied beyond doubt that Sachin had huge potential and hunger to succeed at the highest level. Slowly and gradually Sachin started making waves in the local cricket of Mumbai. And it was not long before Sachin got to play his first Ranji trophy match against Gujarat in 1988-89. Sachin went on to make 100 not out in his very debut 1st class match; it was not a surprise for those who knew him!

Ups And Downs

After some initial hiccups, there has not been any real stumbling block in cricketing carrier of this" Bombay Bomber". The little genius, as Sachin is fondly called, has been performing consistently for the country ever since he started playing cricket for India. But every champion has some lean patches, Sachin too had some.

Sachin's tremendous performances soon elevated him to the most challenging task of captaining the Indian side. But sadly this pressure had its toll on Sachin's batting. Many criticize Sachin of not delivering the goods in crunch situations. In recent years Sachin has not been in scintillating of forms and his genius has been visible only in parts. While criticizing him we must not forget that Sachin has been round the corner for the last 16 years.

Captaincy: Tendulkar's record

Tendulkar's two tenures as captain of the Indian cricket team were not very successful. When Tendulkar took over as captain in 1996, it was with huge hopes and expectations. However, by 1997 the team was performing poorly. Azharuddin was credited with saying "Nahin jeetega! Chote ki naseeb main jeet nahin hai!” which translates into: "He won't win! It's not in the small one's destiny!"

Tendulkar's record as captain
Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn	Tied	No result	Win %
25	4	9	12	0	–	16%
73	23	43	–	2	6	31.50%

Tendulkar, succeeding Azharuddin as captain for his second term, led India on a tour of Australia, where the visitors were beaten 3–0 by the newly crowned world champions. Tendulkar, however, won the player of the series award as well as player of the match in one of the games. After another Test series defeat, this time by a 0–2 margin at home against South Africa, Tendulkar resigned, and Sourav Ganguly took over as captain in 2000. Tendulkar remained an integral part of the Indian team's strategic processes. He was often seen in discussion with the captain, at times actively involved in building strategies Former captain Rahul Dravid publicly acknowledged that Tendulkar had been suggesting moves such as the promotion of Irfan Pathan up the batting order which, although only temporary, had an immediate effect on the team's fortunes. In 2007, Tendulkar was appointed vice-captain to captain Rahul Dravid. During the Indian team's 2007 tour of England, Dravid's desire to resign from the captaincy became known. The BCCI President Sharad Pawar personally offered the captaincy to Tendulkar. However, Tendulkar asked Pawar not to appoint him captain, instead recommending Mahendra Singh Dhoni to take over the reins. Pawar later revealed this conversation, crediting Tendulkar for first forwarding the name of Dhoni, who since achieved much success as captain.

 International Record’s of Sachin Tendulkar:

Tendulkar's results in international matches
	Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn	Tied	No result
Test	200	72	56	72	0	–
ODI	463	234	200	–	5	24
T20	1	1	–	–	–	–

Indian Premier League and Champions League:

Tendulkar's record in Twenty20 matches
	Matches	Runs	HS	100s	50s	Avg.
T20I	1	10	10	0	0	10.00
IPL	78	2334	100*	1	13	34.83
CLT20	13	265	69	0	1	20.38

 Centuries Against different Nations:

Nations	Test	ODI
Australia	11	9
Sri Lanka	9	8
South Africa	7	5
England	7	2
New Zealand	4	5
West Indies	3	4
Zimbabwe	3	5
Pakistan	2	5
Bangladesh	5	1
Kenya	0	4
Namibia	0	1

Rajya Sabha Nomination:

In April 2012, Tendulkar accepted the Rajya Sabha nomination proposed by the President of India and became the first active sportsperson and cricketer to have been nominated. Former cricketers Sanjay Manjrekar, Ajit Wadekar, Madan Lal expressed their surprise over this move.

On 2 May, Tendulkar was elected to seat number 103 in the Rajya Sabha and took the oath on 4 June. He refused to take the bungalow allotted to him in New Delhi calling it "waste of tax payer's money" as he resides in Mumbai.