THE LITTLE MASTER -Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

India is a cricket crazy country and there is a saying in India 'Cricket is my religion and Sachin is my God'. People in India are mad about Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar for he is the greatest ever One Day International player and one of the greatest Test Cricket player. The Master Blaster, holds several batting records, including the most Test centuries and the most one-day international centuries, and was rated in 2002 by Wisden as the second greatest Test batsman ever, after Sir Don Bradman.

He received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honour, for 1997-1998, and the civilian award Padma Shri in 1999. Tendulkar was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1997.Sachin was born on 24 April 1973 in Mumbai (then Bombay) into a middle-class family. His parents Ramesh and Rajni Tendulkar named him after his family's favourite music director Sachin Dev Burman. Sachin was sent 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. At the age of 14 Sachin became the youngest player ever selected for Mumbai in the West Zone Ranji Trophy league and tine legend was born.Subsequently, b-e was selected for the Sportster Trophy for boys under 17. His scores of 15-8, 97 and 75 also won him the Man of the Series award and took his team (Dattu Phadkar XI) to victory. 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. He is, in fact, the only player to score a century while making his Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy debut.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 . However, his maiden Test century came in England's tour in 1990 . 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.

Some other highlights of Tendulkar's cricket career include highlight number of Test centuries, overtaking Sunil Gavaskar's record 34) on 10 December 2005 vs. Sri Lanka in Delhi. He has played Test Cricket on 52 different grounds, the highest number ahead of Mhd. Azh_aruddirn 48) and Kapil Dev (47). He holds the record for the fastest to score 10 , 000 runs in the history of Test Cricket along with Brian Lara. Both of them achieved this feat in 195 innings.Wisden named Tendulkar one of the Cricketers of the Year in 1997, the first calendar year in which lie scored 1,000 Test runs. He repeated the feat in 1999, 2001, and 2002. Tendulkar also 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. While not a regular bowler, Tendulkar has 37 wickets, in 132 tests.Tendulkar's first ODI century came on September 9, 1994 against Australia in Sri Lanka at Colombo. Though it had taken Tendulkar 79 ODIs to score a century, to date, he has played more matches than any other cricketer. He has appeared on 89 different grounds and has scored the most runs as well as centuries. He is the first cricketer to cross l0,000-run mark in ODIs He is the only player to have over 100 innings of 50+ runs. He has the highest individual score among any batsmen in the world.He is the only male cricketer to have ever scored 200 in ODI, the feat he achieved against South Africa in 2010. In 1998, Sachin made 1,894 ODI runs, which is still the record for ODI runs by any batsman in any given calendar year.Today, several records remain etched on Sachin's name and most of them may remain on his name for ever. He is the highest run getter in ODIs and has scored nearly 44 ODI centuries, the most by any batsman.

He has achieved the highest number of Man of the Match awards (56) and most Man of the Series (14) awards. He is the first cricketer to get pass 16,000 runs. He has scored the most number of ODI fifties and is the only player to be in top 10 of ICC rankings for 10 years.He is the first overseas player to play for English County Yorkshire. He is the only cricketer to receive Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Shri and Arjuna Award. He has most number of international runs in all forms of the game and has been involved in six 200+ partnerships in One Day Internationals most by any batsman. On his name stands the record for most number of successive ODI appearances (185). He also has most number of Test appearances for India.Tendulkar has the highest number of runs in World Cup matches 1,796 with a strike rate of 59.87. He has also won most number of Man of the Match awards in World Cup matches. He was the Player Of The Tournament in the 2003 Cricket World Cup for scoring 673 runs, the highest by any one in a single Cricket World Cup.Sachin Tendulkar has endorsed more than 100 products in last 20 years. He has appeared in ads for Pepsi, ANZ Grindlays Visa, MRF, Britannia, Boost, Adidas, TVS, Visa, Aviva Life Insurance, Phillips, BPL Sanyo, Reynolds, Fiat Palio, Boost, Sunfeast, National Egg Coordination Committee, Airtel, Royal Bank of Scotland and many more. Sachin Tendulkar's ads are very popular, and his endorsements are still a safe bet for the advertisers.A chronic back problem and Tennis elbow failed to deter him. He has come out stronger after every break. Sachin Tendulkar married Anjali Mehta, the paediatrician daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta, in 1995, some years after they were introduced by mutual friends. They have two children, Sara and Arjun. Tendulkar sponsors 200 under-privileged children every year through Apnalaya, a Mumbai- based NGO associated with his mother-in-law, Annabel Mehta.

Sachin Tendulkar is considered one of the complete batsmen ever. He has all the shots in the book. Also, he is unarguably the biggest crowd puller and icon of the game. There were times in Indian households, when Sachin Tendulkar used to get out, people used to turn off their Television sets. Sachin has enthralled his legions of fans with many a great innings in more than twenty years that he has played cricket. But it is not just Sachin's willow that has enthralled cricket fans the world over, he has also made telling contributions with the ball.Recognised by Sir Donald Bradznu and as his modern incarnation, Tendulkar has a skill a genius which only a handful has possessed. It was not a skill that he was simply born with, but one which was developed by his intelligence and an infinite capacity for taking pains. If there is a secret, it is that Tendulkar has the keenest of cricket minds he learns every lesson, picks up every cue, and dominates the opposing attack sooner or later. In fact, he enjoys devouring bowlers of the opposition the most.