SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR
Date of Birth
April 24, 1973 at Mumbai
ODI Debut Against Pakistan at Gujranwala in
1989/90
Test Debut Against Pakistan at Karachi in 1989/90
Bats Right
Hand
Bowls Right Arm Medium/Spin
Profile
He is the
edifice on which Indian cricket seems to be standing. Small and compact,
there is probably no more talented batsman than him in the world. The
style and class are evident to anyone who watches him even for the
briefest of moment and then his record matches up to it.
Not since
the days of Don Bradman has a single cricketer caught the imagination of
the cricket-playing world like Tendulkar has. So much even the normally
reclusive Don made an exception in Sachin's case and made time for him. He
met Tendulkar and Shane Warne on his 90th birthday, and in the rarest of
rare tributes said Tendulkar was quite like him. From any other man it
might suggest a touch of vanity, but from the Don it was a complement of
the highest kind.
Tendulkar, it would seem, was born to play
cricket. Nursed almost from the beginning to take to cricket, he was still
14 when he came to first-class cricket and not quite 16 when he played
Test cricket. And now at 27 he seems a veteran, who could go on forever,
if only nature would make an exception in his case. It can be safely said
that he will not come close to the magical average of 99.94 of Bradman,
but it can be equally safe to say that not many others will come close to
Tendulkar's records by the time he chooses to take leave of
cricket.
Armed with a keen cricketing mind and a bat that
alternately resembles a bludgeon and a scimitar, Tendulkar is probably the
most complete batsman in a long, long time. When he gets going in a savage
manner, he can send bowlers, fielders and rival captains throw up their
hands in despair. He scores on virtually every kind of wicket and spares
no bowler. For the spectator and cricket connoisseur there is no better
sight than a Tendulkar in full flow.
His sharp cricketing sense
helps him pick the bowlers to go for and then he virtually reduces them to
tatters, as he did in the case of Shane Warne, when the Australians came
to India in 1998. But his image of a virtual immortal in cricket suffered
somewhat with his lack of success as a captain of the Indian team in two
separate stints. Perhaps, it was his luck that Indian played abroad more
often in his two tenures of about a year each, or maybe it was the high
standards he sets for himself and others that let him down. Only he can
match the standards he has, and it could even intimidate others, who
cannot come close to his class.
Tendulkar's run-getting is so
phenomenal that it is quite likely that by the time he gives up cricket,
his records will stand at a summit which will be most daunting for even
the supremely talented. He has more than 8,500 Test runs including 31
centuries in 105 Tests and 12,000 one-day runs with 34 centuries in 309
matches. The quickest among four players who have more than 9,000 one-day
runs, Tendulkar has an incredible ability to convert fifties into
hundreds.
Mohammed Azharuddin, Desmond Haynes and Aravinda de Silva
have more than 8,000 each, too, but they have only seven, 17 and 11
centuries each to Tendulkar's 34. Azhar and de Silva have 56 fifties each
and Haynes 57, while Tendulkar has just 60. And his career strike rate in
one-dayers is a phenomenal 87.13. Tendulkar, who has scored almost half
his runs (48.67 per cent) in boundaries, was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel
Ratna in 1997 and the Arjuna Award in 1998.
For more information on
Sachin Tendulkar visit
www.sachin-tendulkar.com
