Sachin Tendulkar

Some Lesser Known Facts About Sachin Tendulkar

• He was born to a well-known Marathi novelist, Ramesh Tendulkar, at Nirmal Nursing Home in Dadar, Bombay.

  

• His mother, Rajni, worked for an Insurance Company.

  

• He was named after the famous Indian Music Director, Sachin Dev Burman.

• Sachin has 3 elder siblings (2 half-brothers Nitin and Ajit & a half-sister Savita). They were from his father’s first wife, who died.

• His formative years were spent in the “Sahitya Sahawas Cooperative Housing Society” in Bandra (East).

  

• The young Sachin was considered a bully in his neighbourhood.

• He developed an interest in Lawn Tennis and started idolizing John McEnroe.

  

• It was Sachin’s elder brother, Ajit, who recognized his cricketing ability and introduced him to Cricket in 1984. He brought Sachin to Ramakant Achrekar at Shivaji Park in Dadar, Bombay (now in Mumbai).

• After being impressed with Sachin, Achrekar advised him to shift his schooling to Sharadashram Vidyamandir (English) High School in Dadar. Sachin moved to his aunt’s home in Dadar, as it was nearer to the school.

  

• He started practicing hard at the Shivaji Park, and during the net practice, Achrekar used to put a coin on the middle stump and offer the bowlers that he would give that coin to the bowler who would get the wicket of Sachin. He was so much into cricket that even after returning to home from the ground, he used to practice different cricketing tricks.

  

• At Sharadashram Vidyamandir, he scored 329 out of a world-record stand of 664 along with Vinod Kambli.

• Soon, he became a case of the child prodigy at his school.

• He became a good friend of Vinod Kambli at Sharadashram Vidyamandir.

  

• His sister, Savita, had gifted to Sachin his first bat in his life.

  

• He initially wanted to become a fast bowler, however; when he went to the MRF Pace Foundation, Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee advised him to focus on his batting instead.

• During the 1987 World Cup, 14-year-old Sachin Tendulkar was picked as a ball boy for the matches played in Mumbai. ^[15]The Economic Times In an interview, he recalled this and said,
  

  My first ‘live’ piece of World Cup action was during the 1987 edition, which was co-hosted by India and Pakistan. I was fortunate to be among the volunteers to be picked as a ball boy for the matches played in Mumbai. As I stood there watching the Indian greats on the field, I kept telling myself that I needed to be a part of the action in the middle.”

  

• At the age of 17, he met his wife Anjali for the first time at the Mumbai airport and got married to her 5 years later. The couple went on to become parents to Arjun and Sara.

  

• In an interview, his wife, Anjali, revealed that she went to Tendulkar’s house for the first time disguised as a journalist.

• Like any other person from a middle-class family, Tendulkar also had to hold down a job in order to make ends meet; he worked at an apparel manufacturer. ^[16]Time

• In 1990, Tendulkar did his first ad for Band-Aid. Two years later in 1992, he was endorsing Pepsi and was on his way to becoming cricket’s first millionaire.

• He is the co-owner of the Kochi ISL team in the Indian Super League Football League in India with PVP Ventures owned by Prasad V Potluri. 

• He made 15 runs in his Test Debut and zero (Duck) in his ODI Debut, both Vs Pakistan.

• When Sachin played for Pakistan– Although everyone knows that Sachin made his international debut in 1989 against Pakistan; however, very few would know that his first taste of international cricket was two years earlier, not playing for India but for Pakistan. In 1987, during a festival match between India and Pakistan at Mumbai’s Brabourne stadium, when Javed Miandad and Abdul Qadir left the field at lunchtime, Sachin was asked to field. Imran Khan placed him at long-on, and soon, Kapil Dev hit the ball in the air in Sachin’s direction; Sachin tried but could not reach the ball. ^[17]Times of India

• His first ODI century came after 79 matches when he made 110 against Australia in the third match of the Singer World Series at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo in September 1994; after five years of his debut in 1989. He made his first Test century on 14 August 1990 against England at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester.

  

• In an interview, he described his glorious unbeaten 233 of the first innings of the match against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium amongst his best. ^[18]Rediff He said,
  

  I think it is one of the most important innings I have played in my life.”

• Sachin Tendulkar is considered to be the only player who has faced the most number of greatest and toughest bowlers of all time including, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Curtly Ambrose, and Shaun Pollock among others.

• In the ten-year period between 1993 and 2002, Sachin Tendulkar’s Test average of 62.30 was the best by a distance.

• When talking about his test stats, against no team did he average less than 42- the lowest averages were against Pakistan (42.28) and South Africa (42.46).

• Sachin’s lowest test average, quite surprisingly, was in Zimbabwe- 40 in seven innings; it was also the only country where he didn’t score a Test century.

• He averaged more than 50 in Australia and England, 49.52 in New Zealand, and 46.44 in South Africa, countries where subcontinent batsmen have often struggled.

• Of the 329 innings he played in his Test career, 275 were at the No. 4 position. For the first 22 innings of his Test career, Sachin batted at number 6 or 7, but the change happened after he scored 148* against Australia in Sydney in 1992. In the second innings of the second Test, in Adelaide, Sachin moved up to No. 4- above Vengsarkar and Azharuddin. He scored only 17 in that innings but the next game was in Perth, and Tendulkar’s mesmerizing 114- in only his second innings at No. 4- settled matters. Matthew Hayden once said-
  

  I have seen God. He bats for India at no. 4 in tests.”

  

• After appearing in six ICC Cricket World Cup tournaments (from 1992 to 2011) in which he made two appearances in the finals (2003 and 2011), he finally realised his long-awaited desire to lift the ICC World Cup trophy, after India defeated Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 2 April 2011. Soon after the conclusion of the final match of the 2011 ICC World Cup, all his teammates lifted him on their shoulders to cheer on the glorious victory of India. While describing the event, Virat Kohli said,
  

  He has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years; it’s time we carried him on our shoulders.”

  

• He loves celebrating the “Ganesh Chaturthi” festival and considers it as the most important day of the year.

  

• Apart from cricket he loves other sports like Tennis, Football, and Formula 1 and is a huge fan of John McEnroe, Diego Maradona, and Michael Schumacher.

• He owned a restaurant in Colaba, Mumbai called “Tendulkar’s.” However, the restaurant couldn’t run longer and has been closed for business.

  

• He is the youngest Indian player ever to feature in Tests and ODIs at the age of 16.

• He is the first and the youngest Indian sportsperson to be awarded Bharat Ratna.

  

• In 2012, he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha where he served till April 2018.

• Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher gifted him a new Ferrari 360 Modena in 2002.

  

• He was a ball boy during the 1987 World Cup semi-finals between India and England at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

• In November 1992, on the second day of the test between India and South Africa at Kingsmead, Durban; Sachin Tendulkar became the first batsman to be dismissed (run out) by using television replays. Karl Liebenberg was the third umpire who dismissed him.

  

• He is ambidextrous, i.e. he bats and bowls with his right hand but writes with his left hand.

  

• In 2003, he made a special appearance in a Bollywood film called “Stumped.”

• Sachin Tendulkar is said to be so concerned with his game that when he was struggling to score runs throughout the 2003 season, he even changed the way he used to play. Earlier, he had been dismissed on a number of occasions driving at wide balls outside his off stump, and when he scored 241* against Australia in January 2004, there was no driving outside the off stump. His determination towards his game is still hailed by the cricket fraternity around the world.

• Tendulkar’s career span of 24 years and a day is the fifth-longest in Test history.

• With his first-class tally of 50,192, Tendulkar is the third non-England player, after Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards, to enter the 50,000-first-class-runs club.

• Six times Sachin scored 1000 or more Test runs in a calendar year, the most by any batsman.

• Sachin Tendulkar is the youngest Indian and the third youngest overall to score a Test century. Had he scored a ton in his last Test innings, he would have been the oldest Indian to score a Test century as well.

• Tendulkar was dismissed ten times in Tests when he was in his nineties, the most for any batsman.

  

• Twenty four years at the crease, Tendulkar faced 848 bowlers; if each one of them lined up to bowl one over at him, it would take nine full Test days plus a morning session.

• The 1998 Sharjah Tournament is considered to be his best tournament as he single-handedly helped India reach the finals and also made a significant contribution helping out India emerging victorious. 

• In 1999, Shoaib Akhtar collided with him during a Test match in Kolkata, resulting in his being ruled run out by the third umpire.

• Sachin Tendulkar and Brad Hogg shared an interesting incident during the third One-Day International match against Australia on 5 October 2007. Hogg managed to dismiss Sachin during the match. In an interview, Hogg revealed that he captured a picture of the moment he took Sachin’s wicket and asked Sachin for an autograph on it after the game. Sachin autographed the photo and added the note that it would never happen again. Hogg referred to this autograph as a “prized possession.” ^[19]The Times of India

  

• On 24 February 2010, he became the first Cricketer to score a double hundred in an ODI. He set this benchmark against South Africa at Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, India.

  

• In 2008, his wax statue was erected in London’s Madame Tussauds.

  

• He has his own personalized kit in which he carries a painting of Tri-color (Indian National Flag) by his daughter Sara.

  

• His upper-cut to Shoaib Akhtar for 6 during the 2003 World Cup is considered his epic shot ever by his fans. 

• Throughout his career, Sachin Tendulkar was known to play with a heavy bat and despite several injuries during his 24 year-long career, he never used a lighter bat. On using a heavy bat, Sachin says-
  

  I used a pretty heavy bat and I was sometimes encouraged to move to a lighter one. Again, I did try but I never felt comfortable, as my whole bat swing depended on that weight. When I was hitting a drive, I needed the weight to generate the power. It was all to do with the timing. To me the bat should be an extension of your arm, and if you’ve reached the stage where it’s become an extension of your arm, why do you need to change?”

  

• Sachin has a magnum heart, and every year, he sponsors 200 underprivileged children through Apnalaya, a Mumbai-based NGO associated with his mother-in-law, Annabel Mehta.

• In May 2019, while posting a picture with Neha and Jyoti from the Banwari Tola village in Uttar Pradesh (the barbershop girls whose video went viral online; depicting the incredible story of taking over their father’s barbershop back in 2014 when he fell ill) through his official Instagram account, Tendulkar shared an image which was captioned, “A First for me! You may not know this, but I have never gotten a shave from someone else before. That record has been shattered today. Such an honour to meet the Barber Shop Girls. #DreamsDontDiscriminate”

View this post on Instagram

A First for me! You may not know this, but I have never gotten a shave from someone else before. That record has been shattered today. Such an honour to meet the #BarbershopGirls and present them the @gilletteindia Scholarship. #ShavingStereotypes #DreamsDontDiscriminate

A post shared by Sachin Tendulkar (@sachintendulkar) on May 3, 2019 at 7:47am PDT

• Back in 1996 against Sri Lanka, when a young Shahid Afridi scored a blazing maiden century off 37 balls to create a new world record, he had used Sachin Tendulkar’s bat. Reportedly, Sachin had given his bat to Waqar Younis who later gave it to Afridi.

• In June 2019, while the ICC Cricket World Cup was going on in England, filed a civil lawsuit against Spartan Sports International, an Australian bat manufacturer; accusing it of using his name and image to promote products and then failing to pay him two million dollars in royalties. The company agreed in 2016 to pay him $1 million a year to use his image, logo and promotional services to sell “Sachin by Spartan” sporting goods and clothing.

  

• Sachin and Sourav Ganguly are childhood friends and in July 2019, on the birthday of Sourav Ganguly, he shared a photo of their under-15 days on his Instagram account.

  

• Sachin has a passion for driving cars and during the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, he tried his hands in driving some vintage cars in London.

View this post on Instagram

Drove the 119 year old Veteran Car, thanks to @royalautomobileclub, Jeremy Vaughan and my dear friend @hormazdsorabjee An experience I shall always cherish.

A post shared by Sachin Tendulkar (@sachintendulkar) on Jun 26, 2019 at 5:48am PDT

• Being a passionate car enthusiast, he also drove a formula car for the first time in June 2019 in Prague.

View this post on Instagram

Being a passionate car enthusiast, I always had my eyes on driving a formula car. My dream of doing so came true when I got to drive one in Prague because of @apollotyresltd. The drive was fun and once I had the hang of it, I could drive faster.

A post shared by Sachin Tendulkar (@sachintendulkar) on Jun 4, 2019 at 5:51am PDT

• After his retirement from cricket, he mostly enjoys playing Lawn Tennis and Golf.

View this post on Instagram

My PGA moment!?⛳? @pgatour Enjoyed a round of golf with @amitbhatia100 #SneakPeek

A post shared by Sachin Tendulkar (@sachintendulkar) on Jun 24, 2019 at 11:55pm PDT

• On various occasions, Tendulkar has been spotted enjoying alcoholic beverages.

  

• Tendulkar was dismissed 681 times in his career and for just over 60% of those dismissals, he was out caught.

  

• In September 2019, in a LinkedIn video, he revealed that he had to “beg and plead” for the opener’s slot so that he could play in an aggressive manner. In the video, he said-
  

  In 1994, when I started opening the batting for India, the strategy used by all the teams was to save wickets. What I tried to do was slightly out of the box. I thought I could go upfront and take the opposition bowlers on. But I had to beg and plead to give me a chance. If I fail, I won’t come after you again.”

• In September 2019, he took his fans down the memory lane by sharing old footage of him practicing on a water-logged pitch. The little master can be seen practicing on a pitch that has standing water and the bowler is using rubber balls, bowling from a short distance.

• In October 2019, during an interaction with a group of students in Maharashtra, he revealed that he wasn’t selected in his first selection trials. He said,
  

  When I was a student, the only thing in my mind was to play for India. My journey started at the age of eleven. I even remember when I went for my first selection trails, I was not selected by the selectors. At that time I was disappointed because I thought I had batted well, but the result was not as per expectation and I was not selected. But after that my focus, commitment and capacity to work hard increased further. If you want to realise your dreams, then short-cuts won’t help.”

• In June 2020, a video started doing rounds on the internet; the video features an interview from 1996 between Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar in which Gavaskar predicted Tendulkar’s rise to superstardom. In the interview, Gavaskar says,
  

  If by the end of his career, he does not score a minimum of 15000 runs and 40 Test centuries, I shall personally go and strangle him. 20 years down the line, my hands would not have the same strength and he might still survive, but I think I will get somebody to do that for me. He has got that much talent!”

• In February 2022, he invited Graham Bensinger, a popular American journalist, to India for a wide-ranging, three-day shoot during which he revealed that ahead of his farewell series in November 2013, he had talked to the BCCI and requested the board to fix the venue of his last match in Mumbai so that his mother could come to the stadium to watch him play. He also revealed that it was the only time that his mother had come to the stadium to watch him play. ^[20]Hindustan Times He said,
  

  When I was about to play my last match, I told the board… the BCCI, that these two games are going to be my last but my only request and my wish is that I play my last game in Mumbai so that my mother could come to the stadium and watch. So they graciously agreed to host the last game in Mumbai and that’s the only time she has seen me play live in 24 years.”

  

• On 16 April 2023, his son, Arjun Tendulkar, made his IPL debut for the Mumbai Indians against the Kolkata Knight Riders, and with this, Sachin Tendulkar and Arjun Tendulkar became the first father-son duo to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL). ^[21]CNN

• For much of his career, his exploits on the cricket pitch were solo efforts. At the peak of his career, his popularity had grown so massively that people would watch as long as Sachin was batting, and the moment he got out, they would switch off their TV sets and go back to work as they believed victory was no longer in the cards.

  

• On 23 August 2023, he was designated as the National Icon of the Election Commission of India in the presence of the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar.

• On 3 October 2023, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced Sachin as the Global Ambassador for the ODI World Cup 2023. ^[22]Outlook

• A statue of Sachin Tendulkar, created by the renowned painter-sculptor Pramod Kamble from Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, was unveiled at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on 1 November 2023. This statue serves as a tribute to Sachin Tendulkar’s significant contributions to Indian cricket. The unveiling event was attended by several distinguished individuals, including the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Eknath Shinde, the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis, and the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Jay Shah.

  

• On 14 November 2023, Sachin, on the occasion of Children’s Day, shared a post on X in which he shared one of his childhood memories. He disclosed a mischievous memory of him and his friends flattening the tires of cars parked at the Sahitya Sahawas society in Mumbai. He further mentioned that their work wasn’t considered complete until all four tires of the cars were flattened.

• On 15 January 2024, Sachin Tendulkar spoke out against the misuse of technology in a post on X. He shared a fabricated video featuring him promoting a gaming app and claiming that his daughter Sara earned a substantial amount from it. In the post, Sachin clarified that the video was fake and urged authorities to take strict actions against those responsible.

• Here are the international statistics of Sachin Tendulkar’s Cricketing career: