Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is a former Indian batsman, and is one of the best sportspersons of all time. Born in 1973 in Mumbai, he went on to smash all exiting records from a very early age and eventually became the most prominent talent the cricketing world had ever witnessed.
The highest run scorer in test cricket as well as one day internationals, his list of cricketing records knows no bound.
He had won every single major cricketing award which is to be won, and has left his mark in other fields too, such as being the owner of the Kerala Blasters team in the Indian Super League, or being a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha.
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Early Life
Sachin Tendulkar was born on 24th April, 1973 to a reputed Marathi novelist Ramesh Tendulkar, and insurance worker Rajni Tendulkar. He has three elder siblings- two brothers and one sister, all from Ramesh’s previous marriage. Legends say that he was named after the famous music composer Sachin Dev Burman.
Sachin’s career began with playing for his society’s cricket team, where he was noticed by Ramakant Achrekar. Achrekar was impressed by his skills, and asked his parents to change his school to Sharadashram Vidyamandir, as it had proper sports facilities and had already produced many famous cricketers.
He also started to coach Tendulkar at Shivaji Park, and Tendulkar credits him till date for playing a pivotal role in a famous cricketer. Apart from school cricket, Tendulkar started participating in club cricket as well. He was also enrolled in the MRF Pace Foundation as a fast bowler.
However, on noticing his batting, Dennis Lillie (former Australian cricketer) suggested him to focus on the same. The first turning point of Sachin’s life was the record unbroken partnership of 664 runs between him and his friend Vinod Kambli, which was the highest at that time in any form of cricket.
This took place in a match against St. Xavier’s High School in the Lord Harris inter-school shield, in the year of 1988.
Style of playing
Sachin Tendulkar is an all-rounder, excelling in both batting and bowling. He is a left-handed person, but uses his right hand dominantly while playing.
A right-hand batsman, Tendulkar is also a bowler, practicing off spin, leg spin, and medium pace. He has employed many modern and unorthodox stroked into his batting style, like the paddle sweep, and different forms of scoop and slash. He has also captained various teams across various formats, including the national team of India.
Early career of Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin played his debut test match against Pakistan in November, 1989, in Karachi, when he was only 16 years old.
However, he failed to leave a mark, as he scored only 15 runs in the match, and his performance in the entire series was overall unimpressive.
On his England tour, in 1990, he scored his first international century (119 not out) in Old Trafford, and began to lay the basis of a reserved spot for himself in the team.
His peak performance was during his 20s, between the years 1993-1999, where he built a reputation as one of the world’s best openers.
His performance in the world cups was especially outstanding. A touching incident was that of the 1999 world cup, where he scored a century on the very next day after performing the last rites of his father, to whom he dedicated this score.
Captaincy
Tendulkar was also made the captain of the Indian team, and served two stints in that role, none of which were very successful. He took over the role in 1996 and the performance of the team was exceedingly disappointing in the next year and a half.
He later succeeded Azharuddin to become the captain once again, but to no avail. Eventually, things improved when Sourav Ganguly became the captain of the Indian team in the year of 2000.
It is said that captaincy created an unnecessary burden for tendulkar which adversely affected his stints both as a batsman and as a captain. He later captained the IPL team Mumbai Indians and other teams for exhibition matches, etc.
Later Career
Sachin’s career during the early years of this century started to deteriorate, and people started raising concerns over his possible removal from the team. He chose to answer all such critiques through his stellar performance in the 2003 world cup which even took the India team to the finals.
He scored 673 runs in eleven matches in the tournament. Very soon, he became the first cricketer to score 10,000 runs and take 100 wickets in one day internationals. The next world cup in 2007 saw him in an all time low. His rise to his earlier form resumed during India’s tour to Australia during 2007-08.
Eventually, he became the very first cricketer to score a double century in a one-day match, which was earlier seen as an impossible task. He achieved this feat against South Africa in 2010. But what can be referred to as perhaps his best achievement is 100 international centuries (including both tests and one day internationals), the last of which came against Bangladesh at Mirpur.
He also served an instrumental role for India to win the 2011 world cup, and the final match at Wankhede (which is also his home ground) was an emotional moment for him indeed. He retired from international cricket, owing to poor performance, in November, 2012, leaving fans heartbroken all throughout the world.
Life after Retirement
After retirement, his major focus was the Indian Premier League, in which he represented Mumbai Indians as a player and later as a mentor; and the Champions’ League- both of which he went on to win in his career.
Although he was not an outstanding T20 player, the agile nature and beautiful stroked delivered by him is a rare sight in today’s cricket, which is hell bent on discarding the textbook techniques.
His biography was released both as a book- ‘Playing It My Way’, co-authored by Boria Majumdar, released in 2014- and as a movie, ‘Sachin: A Billion Dreams’, directed by James Erskine.
In April, 2012, he was nominated by the president as a member of the Rajya Sabha, and he continues to hold this prestigious post. He was involved with the ISL as well, as the owner of the Kerala Blasters team, and continues to play exhibition cricket matches and tournaments till date.
He was also the first Indian sportsperson to win the Bharat Ratna award. At present, he resides in Mumbai with his wife Anjali, and his children- Arjun and Sana.
Conclusion
Sachin Tendulkar, often referred to as the greatest cricketer of all time, is a humble yet talented, sincere, and dedicated human being. There is so much to learn from him, as a person as well as a cricketer.
According to an interview, he has mentioned that till date he strives to make a better version of himself, and learn new lessons from the obstacles life throws at him every day.
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