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Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (born April 24, 1973) is a living cricket legend and member of the Indian cricket team since 1989. He made his international debut against Pakistan in 1989. He is widely regarded as one of the best batsmen of all time and possibly the greatest of his era. Sir Donald Bradman, the Australian great said of Sachin, "He reminds me of myself".
Born in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) into a middle class family, he played his first international match when he was 16, against Pakistan in Karachi facing up to the likes of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. He scored just 15 runs and was bowled by Waqar Younis, who also made his debut in that match. It was an innings very different from how the rest of his career went. He 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 did not make remarkable contribution. It was in the tour of England in 1990 that he scored his maiden test century but the other scores were not remarkable. It was in the 1991/1992 tour of Australia that he made his mark as a remarkable batsman. 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 maiden ODI century came on September 9, 1994 against Australia in Sri Lanka at Colombo.
He was named by Wisden as one of the Cricketers of the Year 1997 which was the first calendar year in which he scored a 1000 test runs. He re-emulated the feat in 1999, 2001 and 2002.
Some remarkable achievements of his career are:
While his batting ranks him among the best in the world, he is also a part-time bowler and has played a crucial role as a leg spinner or a medium pace bowler who tends to break partnerships. He has more than a hundred wickets in ODIs and 35 in tests, though his bowling averages are above 40. He continues to perform well under the massive weight of expectation of hundreds of millions of cricket followers, in India and around the world, and most recently was named Player Of The Tournament in the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
| Runs | Against | Venue(Year) | Result |
| 114 | Australia | Perth(1991-92) | Australia |
| 179 | West Indies | Nagpur(1994-95) | Drawn |
| 169 | South Africa | Cape Town(1996-97) | South Africa |
| 155 | Australia | Chennai(1997-98) | India |
| 136 | Pakistan | Chennai(1998-99) | Pakistan |
| 155 | South Africa | Bloemfontein(2001-02) | South Africa |
| 193 | England | Leeds(2002) | India |
| 241 not out | Australia | Sydney(2004) | Drawn |
| 194 not out | Pakistan | Multan(2004) | India |
| 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 |
+WC-World Cup
He seems to play his best cricket against the best teams, however he has been criticized for not leading India to more test match victories away from home. Only the last of the innings listed above led to an Indian victory abroad. However, for a good part of his career, the Indian team was not very competitive and he was the only redeeming quality about it. There were times where he has brought India to the verge of victory only to be let down by his teammates.
Sachin's batting in ODIs really took off after he was invited to open the innings at Napier against New Zealand in 1994, after he had played 70 ODIs. His first hundred came later that year against Australia in Colombo. He now scores a century every six innnings that he plays.
Tendulkar has a shrewd cricketing brain and has a good arm from the outfield. Sachin's record as captain, however, has not been outstanding.
His contribution to the game and his role in attracting a following to the game goes beyond his record. His game is characterized by style, aggression and often dazzling brilliance.
One quality of Sachin that has earned him respect from fans and cricketers around the world is his down-to-earth nature that he maintains despite being treated as a national icon.
He suffered a career-threatening back injury in 1999.
During the Indian tour of Pakistan in 2004, in perhaps the most controversial declaration in recent times, in the second test at Multan, stand-in captain Rahul Dravid declared the innings when Sachin was on 194, six short of a double-hundred. However, despite Sachin's initial dissapointment, the issue was quickly sorted out as it was in the best interest of the team. The decision was backed by Imran Khan who said that the team's interest must come before individual records. He cited examples such as Vivian Richards to emphasize that one need not be a record-breaker to be a good cricketer.
Tendulkar has not played since the Asia Cup final on August 1, 2004 missing a one-day tournament in the Netherlands and the ICC Champions Trophy in England as he is recovering from tennis elbow. He is struggling to be fit for the home test series against Australia.
Tennis elbow, a rare injury for cricketers, is the latest in a series of fitness problems suffered by Tendulkar in the last five years, most attributed to wear and tear since he made his international debut as a 16-year-old in 1989.
Sachin's fame in his own country is such that he is virtually a prisoner in his own home with his appearances in public causing near-riots amongst fevered fans. He is known to take his car for late-night drives around the city as one of the few chances to escape the protective bubble he is forced to exist within.Sachin is married to his childhood buddy Dr. Anjali.He has a five year old daughter Sara and a son Arjun , who is three.
Perhaps the biggest reminder of his fame, Sachin was recently made a textbook lesson in Indian schools so that children can draw inspiration from his achievements.
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