Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar retires from Tests after playing his 200th and final game, against the West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, starting Thursday, November 14. Here are fifty facts about the iconic cricketer that not many know about. 1) Sachin Tendulkars father named him after the legendary music director Sachin Dev Burman. 2) Sachin, during his school days, grew his hair long and tied a band around it to copy tennis legend John McEnroe. 3) Sachin used to ask his colony watchmans son and playmate Ramesh Pardhe to dip a rubber ball in water and hurl it at him to know whether he had middled the ball or not. 4) Praveen Amre bought Sachin Tendulkar his first pair of international quality cricket shoes. 5) Sunil Gavaskar gave Sachin ultra-light pads when he was 14. However, they were stolen when Sachin was attending an under-15 camp in Indore. 6) Dilip Vengsarkar gifted Sachin a Gunn & Moore bat after he was picked for the Mumbai under-15 team. 7) Sachin wanted to be a fast bowler but was later rejected by Australian great Dennis Lillee at the MRF pace academy in Chennai in 1987. 8) Former Delhi and Punjab player Gursharan Singh played with one hand, despite a broken finger, to help Sachin reach a century in an Irani Cup tie in 1989-90. 9) Sachin was returning from Englands tour in 1990 when he met his future wife, Anjali, for the first time, at the Mumbai airport. 10) Sachins father-in-law, Anand Mehta, is a seven-time national bridge champion. 11) Sachin had to wait for 79 matches for his first ODI century on September 9, 1994. By that time he had scored seven Test hundreds. 12) London Times John Woodcock once said about Sachin: He is the best I have seen in my life. And unlike most of you, I have seen Bradman. 13) In 1992, Sachin became the first overseas player to represent Yorkshire county side. 14) In 1999 Sachin was conferred the Padma Shri - Indias fourth highest civilian honour. 15) During the Lords Test in 2007, British actor and Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe queued up for an autograph of Sachin at the end of the game. 16) Sachin Tendulkar always takes the left window seat of the front row in the team bus. 17) Sachin Tendulkar features in Sir Donald Bradmans all time Test XI, being the only player from the current generation to do so. 18) Sachin Tendulkar is the only Indian to find a place in Wisdens all-time World XI. 19) For a person with more than 15000 Test runs, it took Sachin Tendulkar a decade to score a double hundred. Mount 200 came for the Master Blaster in 1999 against New Zealand when he hit 217. It was his 71st Test match. 20) Tendulkar was a ball boy during the 1987 World Cup semi-final between India and England. 21) There are two wards in New Delhis Tihar Jail, one named after Tendulkar and another after Vinod Kambli. The duo shared a 664-run unbroken partnership in a school match. 22) Sachin was the first player to be given out by the third umpire in an international game against South Africa in 1992. 23) Tendulkar was the first individual without an aviation background to be awarded the honorary rank of Group Captain by the Indian Air Force. 24) Sachin holds the unique distinction of scoring a century on debut in Ranji Trophy, Irani Trophy and Duleep Trophy. 25) Tendulkar equalled Sunil Gavaskars record of 34 Test hundreds and went past the record on the same date, December 10. His 34th ton came against Bangladesh in Dhaka on 2004 and the 35th was against Sri Lanka at Delhis Feroz Shah Kotla in 2005. 26) Sachin Tendulkars debut Test also was legendary allrounder Kapil Devs 100th. 27) Sachin faced his first ball in Tests from legendary Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis, who was also making his debut. 28) His coach at Shardashram, Ramakant Achrekar, used to offer a one rupee coin as prize to any bowler who dismissed him. If he remained not out, the coin belonged to Sachin. Still has a good bunch of those coins. 29) Sachin holds the world record of scoring 150-plus more than 20 times, a world record in Tests. 30) Tendulkar also holds the world record of 11 scores of 150-plus runs overseas along with scoring most runs overseas - 8705 (average of 54.74 in 106 Tests). 31) Sachin shares an Indian record of most 200-plus scores (6) along with Virender Sehwag. 32) Sachin has been involved in 71 Tests in a winning cause - the most by any player from the subcontinent. Sachin averages 62.36 in those Tests. 33) Tendulkar holds an Indian record for most hundreds in a calendar year - 7 tons in 2010. 34) Sachin shares 20 century stands with Rahul Dravid, a world record for most century partnerships by any pair in Test cricket. 35) Tendulkar has unique record of playing against 866 players (teammates and opponents) in ODIs, which is most for any player in history. 36) Sachin has recorded 11 Tests hundreds against Australia, the most by a player from the subcontinent. 37) Sachin has an Indian record of winning the most Man of the Match awards (14) in Tests. 38) Tendulkar shares a record with Brian Lara and Kumar Sangakkara for reaching 10,000 runs in least number of innings (195). 39) Tendulkar is the only batsman to have scored at least two centuries against all other Test playing countries. 40) Sachin holds the record for reaching 13,000 runs in least number of Test innings (266). 41) Tendulkar is the only player to have recorded 2000 fours (2046), apart from 69 sixes. 42) Sachin has managed 1,000 runs or more against seven opponents, sharing a world record with Rahul Dravid. 43) Tendulkar, at 11, played his first Giles Shield match against Khoja Khan School at Azad Maidan, scoring 24. 44) Sachin has been dismissed stumped only once in Test matches. The only occasion was against England at Bangalore in 2002. Just 10 runs away from his century, Sachin, frustrated by Ashley Giles negative bowling down the leg side, came down the track and missed only for wicketkeeper James Foster to effect a smart stumping. 45) In 2001-02, Sachin was dismissed LBW in five consecutive innings, which is an Indian record. 46) Tendulkar has never batted at number three in his entire Test career. He has opened once, batted 273 times at number 4, 29 times at number 5, 20 times at number 6 and 4 times at number 7. 47) Six times Sachin has hit winning runs in a Test, which is the most by an Indian. Only Ricky Ponting (9) and Desmond Haynes (7) have done this more often in Tests. 48) Tendulkar refused to do a Pepsi ad because it required him to smash cricket balls with a fly swatter. He told ad-film maker Prahlad Kakkar that this will project him as bigger than the game of cricket. The ad was modified and stumps replaced the fly swatter. 49) A book on Sachin Tendulkar was launched in 2009, named Tendulkar Opus, by a company founded by former investment banker Karl Fowler. The book has 852 pages edged in gold leaf with each page measuring 50cm x 50cm and weighs 37 kg. 50) In less than a year after joining Twitter, Sachin hit the one million follower mark to become the only Indian in the million-follower club on the social networking website.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 12:28:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015