About

Early life and background

Tendulkar was born at the Nirmal Nursing Home in the Dadar neighbourhood of Bombay, Maharashtra on 24 April 1973 into a Maharastrian family. His father, Ramesh Tendulkar, was a Marathi-language novelist and poet while his mother, Rajni, worked in the insurance industry.Tendulkar's father named him after his favourite music director, Sachin Dev Burman.Tendulkar has three older siblings: two half-brothers Nitin and Ajit, and a half-sister Savita. They were his father's children by his first wife, who died after the birth of her third child. His brother Ajit played in Bombay's Kanga Cricket League.

Tendulkar spent his formative years in the Sahitya Sahawas Cooperative Housing Society in Bandra (East). As a young boy, Tendulkar was considered a bully, and he often picked fights with new children in his school.

As a child, Tendulkar was interested in both tennis and cricket. He particularly idolised American player John McEnroe, and emulated his hero by growing his hair long at the age of 7 or 8 years. At this time, Tendulkar also regularly wore tennis wristbands and headbands and carried a tennis racquet with him as a sign of his love for tennis.

To help curb his bullying tendencies, his elder brother Ajit introduced Tendulkar to cricket in 1984. Ajit introduced him to cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar at Shivaji Park in Dadar. At their first meeting, Tendulkar did not play well. Ajit told Achrekar that he was feeling self-conscious due to the coach observing him, and was not displaying his natural game. Ajit requested the coach to give him another chance at playing, but watch while hiding behind a tree. This time, Tendulkar, apparently unobserved, played much better and was accepted at Achrekar's academy.

Achrekar was impressed with Tendulkar's talent and advised him to shift his schooling to Sharadashram Vidyamandir School,a school in Dadar that had produced many notable cricketers. He made his debut as a cricketer for Sharadashram in late 1984. Prior to this, Tendulkar had attended the Indian Education Society's New English School in Bandra (East). He was also coached under the guidance of Achrekar at Shivaji Park in the mornings and evenings.Tendulkar would practice for hours; if he became exhausted, Achrekar would put a one-rupee coin on the top of the stumps, and the bowler who dismissed Tendulkar would get the coin. If Tendulkar completed the session without getting dismissed, the coach would give him the coin. Tendulkar considers the 13 coins he won among his most prized possessions.While he was training at Shivaji Park, he moved in with his aunt and uncle, who lived near the park.

Besides school cricket, Tendulkar also played club cricket. In 1984, at age 11, he debuted in the Kanga Cricket League while playing for the John Bright Cricket Club.Beginning in 1988, he played for the Cricket Club of India.

In 1987, at the age of 14, he attended the MRF Pace Foundation in Madras (now Chennai) to train as a fast bowler, but the trainer, Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee, was unimpressed and suggested that Tendulkar focus on his batting instead.On 20 January 1987, he was a substitute for Imran Khan's side in an exhibition match at Brabourne Stadium in Bombay. A couple of months later, former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar gave Tendulkar a pair of his own lightweight pads and told him to not get disheartened for not receiving the Bombay Cricket Association's Best Junior Cricketer Award. Of this experience, Tendulkar later said, "It was the greatest source of encouragement for me".Tendulkar served as a ball boy in the 1987 Cricket World Cup when India played against England in the semifinal in Bombay.

In 1988, while playing for Sharadashram, Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli batted in an unbroken 664-run partnership in a Lord Harris Shield inter-school game against St. Xavier's High School. Tendulkar scored 326 (not out) in that match and scored over 1,000 runs in the tournament. This was a record partnership in any form of cricket until 2006, when it was broken by two junior cricketers in Hyderabad, India.

Early career

On 14 November 1987, at age 14, Tendulkar was selected to represent Bombay in the Ranji Trophy for the 1987–88 season, but he was not selected for the final eleven in any of the matches, though he was often used as a substitute fielder. A year later, on 11 December 1988, aged 15 years and 232 days, Tendulkar made his debut for Bombay against Gujarat at Wankhede Stadium and scored 100 (not out) in that match, making him the youngest Indian to score a century on debut in first-class cricket. He was selected to play for the team by Bombay captain Dilip Vengsarkar, who watched him play Kapil Dev in Wankhede Stadium's cricket practice nets,[29] where the Indian team had come to play against the touring New Zealand team. Tendulkar followed this by scoring a century each in his Deodhar and Duleep Trophy debuts, which are also India's domestic cricket tournaments.

Tendulkar finished the 1988–89 Ranji Trophy season as Bombay's highest run-scorer. He scored 583 runs at an average of 67.77 and was the eighth-highest run-scorer overall. In both 1988 and 1989, he was picked for a young Indian team to tour England under the Star Cricket Club banner. In the 1990–91 Ranji Trophy final, which Bombay narrowly lost to Haryana, Tendulkar's 96 from 75 balls was key to giving Bombay a chance of victory as it attempted to chase 355 from only 70 overs on the final day.

At the start of the 1989–90 season, while playing for Rest of India, Tendulkar scored an unbeaten century in an Irani Trophy match against Delhi.

In the final of 1995 Ranji Trophy, Tendulkar, captaining Bombay, scored 140 and 139 versus Punjab.

In the 1995–96 Irani Cup, he captained Mumbai against Rest of India.His first double century (204*) was for Mumbai while playing against the visiting Australian team at the Brabourne Stadium in 1998. He is the only player to score a century on debut in all three of his domestic first-class tournaments (the Ranji, Irani, and Duleep Trophies). Another double century was an innings of 233* against Tamil Nadu in the semi-finals of the 2000 Ranji Trophy, which he regards as one of the best innings of his career.

In total, Tendulkar was part of five Ranji Trophy finals, in which Mumbai won 4.

Early tours

Raj Singh Dungarpur is credited for the selection of Tendulkar for the Indian tour of Pakistan in late 1989,after one first class season. The Indian selection committee had shown interest in selecting Tendulkar for the tour of the West Indies held earlier that year, but eventually did not select him, as they did not want him to be exposed to the dominant fast bowlers of the West Indies so early in his career.

Tendulkar was the youngest player to debut for India in Tests at the age of 16 years and 205 days, and also the youngest player to debut for India in ODI at the age of 16 years and 238 days. Tendulkar made his Test debut against Pakistan in Karachi in November 1989 aged 16 years and 205 days. He scored 15 runs, being bowled by Waqar Younis, who also made his debut in that match. He was noted for how he handled numerous blows to his body at the hands of the Pakistani pace attack. In the fourth and final Test match in Sialkot, he was hit on the nose by a bouncer bowled by Younis, but he declined medical assistance and continued to bat even as he his nose gushed blood. In a 20-over exhibition game in Peshawar, held in parallel with the bilateral series, Tendulkar made 53 runs off 18 balls, including an over in which he scored 27 runs bowled by leg-spinner Abdul Qadir.This was later called "one of the best innings I have seen" by the then Indian captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth. In all, Tendulkar scored 215 runs at an average of 35.83 in the Test series, and was dismissed without scoring a run in the only One Day International (ODI) he played.

The series was followed by a tour of New Zealand in which he scored 117 runs at an average of 29.25 in Tests. He was dismissed without scoring in one of the two ODI games he played, and scored 36 in the other. On a 1990 tour to England, on 14 August, he became the second-youngest cricketer to score a Test century as he made 119 not out in the second Test at Old Trafford in Manchester. Wisden described his innings as "a disciplined display of immense maturity" and also wrote, "He looked the embodiment of India's famous opener, Gavaskar, and indeed was wearing a pair of his pads. While he displayed a full repertoire of strokes in compiling his maiden Test hundred, most remarkable were his off-side shots from the back foot. Though only 5ft 5in tall, he was still able to control without difficulty short deliveries from the English pacemen".

Tendulkar's reputation grew during the 1991–92 tour of Australia held before the 1992 Cricket World Cup. During the tour, he scored an unbeaten 148 in the third Test at Sydney, making him the youngest batsman to score a century in Australia. He then scored 114 on a fast, bouncing pitch in the final Test at Perth against a pace attack from Merv Hughes, Bruce Reid, and Craig McDermott. Hughes commented to Allan Border at the time that "This little prick's going to get more runs than you, AB."

Personal life

On 24 May 1995, Tendulkar married Anjali Mehta, a paediatrician of Gujarati origin, whom he had first met in 1990.Anjali decided to leave her medical career following their marriage.They have two children, Sara and Arjun.Tendulkar lives in a bungalow in the Mumbai suburb of Bandra.

Tendulkar is a Hindu He is a devotee of Ganesha, and a follower of Sathya Sai Baba, whom he visited for the first time in 1997.The death of Sai Baba on Tendulkar's 38th birthday, in 2011, caused him to cancel his birthday celebrations.

Awards and honours

India

1994 – Arjuna Award, by the Government of India in recognition of his outstanding achievement in sports.

1997–98 – Khel Ratna Award, India's highest honour given for achievement in sports.

1999 –  Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award.

2001 – Maharashtra Bhushan Award, Maharashtra state's highest civilian award.

2008 –  Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award.

2010 –  Honorary Group Captain

2014 –  Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.

Australia

2012 –  Honorary Member of the Order of Australia, given by the Australian government.

Sporting honours

1997 – Wisden Cricketers of the Year.

1998, 2010 – Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World.

2001 – Mumbai Cricket Association renamed one of Wankhede Stadium's stands after Sachin Tendulkar.

2002 – In commemorating Tendulkar's feat of equalling Don Bradman's 29 centuries in Test Cricket, Formula One (F1) team Ferrari invited him to its paddock on the eve of the British Grand Prix on 23 July, to receive a Ferrari 360 Modena from the F1 world champion Michael Schumacher.

2003 – Player of the tournament in Cricket World Cup.

2004, 2007, 2010 – ICC World ODI XI.

2006–07, 2009–10 – Polly Umrigar Award for International Cricketer of the Year]

2009, 2010, 2011 – ICC World Test XI.

2010 – Outstanding Achievement in Sport and the People's Choice Award at The Asian Awards in London.

2010 – Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year.

2010 – LG People's Choice Award.

2010 – Made an Honorary Group Captain by the Indian Air Force.

2011 – Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year award.

2012 – Wisden India Outstanding Achievement award.

2013 – India Post released a stamp of Tendulkar and he became the second Indian after Mother Teresa to have such stamp released in their lifetime.

2014 – ESPNcricinfo Cricketer of the Generation.

2017 – The Asian Awards Fellowship Award at the 7th Asian Awards.

2019 – Inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame

2020 – Laureus World Sports Award for Best Sporting Moment (2000–2020)

2023 – On his 50th birthday, the West Stand at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium has been renamed the 'Sachin Tendulkar Stand.On 24 April 2023, the Sydney Cricket Ground unveiled a set of gates named after Tendulkar and Brian Lara on the occasion of Tendulkar's 50th birthday and the 30th anniversary of Lara's innings of 277 at the ground.

2025 - BCCI Awards, C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award.

Political career

In April 2012, Tendulkar was nominated by President Pratibha Patil to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. He became the first active sportsperson and cricketer to receive the honour.He took the oath of office on 4 June.He refused to accept the bungalow allotted to him in New Delhi, calling it "a waste of [taxpayers'] money as I reside in Mumbai.

Attendance

As a member of parliament in Rajya Sabha, Tendulkar was one of the worst performers in regards to attendance at parliament sessions and house debates.Fellow MPs from various parties, including other nominated MPs, criticised Tendulkar for his absence.In his first year, he did not attend a single day of budget or winter session, and his attendance for the monsoon session was 5 percent. In his career as an MP, he asked 22 questions and did not participate in any debates. He was part of the Standing Committee on Information Technology. Overall, his attendance for his six year-term was 8 percent.In response to criticism about his attendance, Tendulkar said that he was absent because of personal issues.

Use of funds

In 2015, Tendulkar released ₹76 lakh (equivalent to ₹1.1 crore or US$140,000 in 2023) from his Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme fund to a West Midnapore, West Bengal, school after receiving a request from the school. In 2019, Tendulkar contributed ₹22 lakh (US$26,000) from his Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) funds allotted to him during his stint as Rajya Sabha MP for the renovation of a Children's Park in East Bandra.

In his six years as a Rajya Sabha MP, Tendulkar accrued nearly ₹90 lakh (US$110,000) in salaries and other monthly allowances. He donated this entire salary and allowances to the Prime Minister Relief Fund. In response, the Prime Minister's Office released a statement: "Prime Minister acknowledges this thoughtful gesture and conveys his gratitude. These contributions will be of immense help in providing assistance to the persons in distress.