He attended the MRF Pace Foundation during his schooldays to train as a fast bowler, but Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee, who saw him training, was not much impressed and suggested that Tendulkar should focus on his batting instead. As a young boy, Tendulkar would practice for hours at the net, and was driven hard by his coach Achrekar.
While at school, his extraordinary batting skills got noticed by the sports circuit. People felt that the young boy would soon become one of the greats in cricket. In the 1988 season, he scored a century in every inning that he played. In one of the inter school matches that year, he had an unbroken 664-run partnership with friend and team mate Vinod Kambli.
When he was 14, Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar a great Indian batsman of that time, gave him a pair of his own light pads. This touching gesture greatly encouraged the budding cricketer, who 20 years later broke Gavaskar’s world record of 34 Test centuries.
In 1988, when he was just under 16, he scored 100 not out in for Bombay against Gujrat. This was on his first-class debut. He then scored a century in his first appearance in the Deodhar and Duleep Trophy. Mumbai captain Dilip Vengsarkar picked him up after seeing him batting Kapil Dev in the nets. That season he was Bombay’s highest run-getter. In the Irani Trophy final, He made an unbeaten century. He scored a century in all three of his Irani Trophy, Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy debuts, and became the first player to do so. He was selected for the tour of Pakistan next year.
At the very young age of 16, Sachin played his first Test match against Pakistan in Karachi in 1989. In this Test, he received several blows to his body at the hands of Waqar Younis, a pace bowler. He made just 15 runs. In the last test in Sialkot, he had a bloody nose from a bouncer, but he went on playing. He scored better in the subsequent games, scoring 53 runs of 18 balls at Peshawar.
In the 1990 Test in England he scored a century at Old Trafford. The English were highly impressed by his disciplined display of immense maturity. He played many types of strokes. His off-side shots from the back foot greatly impressed the English. Though short in height, he confidently faced short deliveries from the English pace bowlers. His great performance made him look the embodiment of Gavaskar, India’s former famous opener.
During the 1991-1992 tour of Australia Tendulkar scored and unbeaten 148 in Sydney and another century on a bouncing pitch a Perth.
At the age of 19, Tendulkar was in England, playing for Yorkshire in 1992. He scored 1070 runs at an average of 45.25 while playing for the English county as the first overseas player.
In the 2003 Cricket World Cup, he made 673 runs in 11 matches which enabled India reach the final. Although Australia won the trophy Tendulkar was given the Man of the Tournament award.
Shortly after this Tendulkar developed a tennis elbow and he was out of cricket for a while. But by 2005, he was back in form. He played well against Australia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Tendulkar performed very well against Bangla Desh and he was adjudged the Man of the Series in the Future Cup against South Africa.
Today Tendulkar is a national icon to fans all over the world. He is the most worshipped cricketer in the world. Tendulkar has been granted the Padma Vibhushan, Padma Shri, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award, Padma Vibhushan by the Indian government.
Personal Life
In 1995, Sachin married Anjali, a doctor and the daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta. They have two children, Sara and Arjun. Tendulkar now sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year through a Mumbai-based NGO.
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