SACHIN TENDULKAR

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, (born on 24 April 1973) affectionately called 'The Little Master', or 'The Master Blaster' is a current Indian cricketer who was rated by Wisden in 2002 as the second greatest Test Cricket and ODI batsman of all time after the legendary Sir Don Bradman and Viv Richards respectively. He holds important batting records such as the leading Test century scorer, leading ODI century and half-century scorer, one of only three batsmen to surpass 11,000 runs in test cricket as well as being the first Indian to do so,and the most career ODI runs and most overall career run tally.

Tendulkar was born to a middle class family of Rajapur Saraswat Brahmins in Bombay, now known as Mumbai. His father Ramesh, a Marathi novelist, named him after his favourite music director Sachin Dev Burman. He was encouraged to play cricket by his elder brother. He has 2 more siblings - brother Nitin and sister Savitai. Nitin's son Rohan, born in 1990, is also a cricketer, representing Mumbai in junior cricket tournaments.

In 1995, Sachin Tendulkar married Anjali (born 13 February 1971), the paediatrician daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta. They have two children, Sara (born 12 October 1997) and Arjun (born 23 September 1999).

Tendulkar sponsors 200 under-privileged children every year through Apnalaya, a Mumbai-based NGO associated with his mother-in-law, Annaben Mehta. He is reluctant to speak about this or other charitable activities, choosing to preserve the sanctity of his personal life despite media interest in him.

Tendulkar is the only player to score a century while making his Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy debut. Tendulkar's rise continued when he was the leading run scorer at the 1996 Cricket World Cup, topping the batting averages whilst scoring two centuries.

Tendulkar, succeeding Mohammad Azharuddin as captain, then led India on a tour of Australia, where the visitors were comprehensively beaten 3-0 by the newly-crowned world champions. After another Test series defeat, this time by a 0-2 margin at home against South Africa, Tendulkar resigned, and Sourav Ganguly took over as captain in 2000.

Also in his first Twenty20 match with international opposition, although unofficial, Tendulkar hit 50 not out off 21 deliveries to blast the International XI to 123 after 10 overs against the Pakistan XI. Sachin became the third cricketer to complete 11000 test runs.

ODI Awards:
- Most Man of the Match Awards: 55 Man of the Match Awards
- Most Man of the Series Awards: 14 Man of the Series Awards

Sachin Tendulkar has been the subject of various books. The following is the listing of books focused on Tendulkar's career:
- Sachin: The Story of the World's Greatest Batsman by Gulu Ezekiel. Publisher: Penguin Global. ISBN 978-0143028543
- The A to Z of Sachin Tendulkar by Gulu Ezekiel. Publisher: Penguin Global. ISBN 978-8174765307
- Sachin Tendulkar-a definitive biography by Vaibhav Purandare. Publisher: Roli Books. ISBN 8174363602
- Sachin Tendulkar - Masterful by Peter Murray, Ashish Shukla. Publisher: Rupa. ISBN 8171678068