Tendulkar was born at Nirmal Nursing Home on 24 April 1973. His father, Ramesh Tendulkar, was a well-known Marathi novelist and his mother, Rajni, worked in the insurance industry. Ramesh named Tendulkar after his favourite music director, Sachin Dev Burman. Tendulkar has three elder siblings: two half-brothers Nitin and Ajit, and a half-sister Savita. They were Rameshs children from his first marriage. He spent his formative years in the Sahitya Sahawas Cooperative Housing Society, Bandra (East). As a young boy, Tendulkar was considered a bully, and often picked up fights with new children in his school. He also showed an interest in tennis, idolising John McEnroe. To help curb his mischievous and bullying tendencies, Ajit introduced him to cricket in 1984. He introduced the young Sachin to Ramakant Achrekar, a famous cricket coach and a club cricketer of repute, at Shivaji Park, Dadar. In the first meeting, the young Sachin did not play his best. Ajit told Achrekar that he was feeling self-conscious due to the coach observing him, and wasnt displaying his natural game. Ajit requested the coach to give him another chance at playing, but watch while hiding behind a tree. This time, Sachin, apparently unobserved, played much better and was accepted at Achrekars academy. Ajit is ten years elder and is credited by Sachin for playing a pivotal role in his life. Sachin with his father,mother and 2 elder brothers Achrekar was impressed with Tendulkars talent and advised him to shift his schooling to Sharadashram Vidyamandir (English) High School, a school at Dadar which had a dominant cricket team and had produced many notable cricketers. Prior to this, Tendulkar had attended the Indian Education Societys 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 on end in the nets. 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 passed the whole session without getting dismissed, the coach would give him the coin. Tendulkar now considers the 13 coins he won then as some of his most prized possessions. He moved in with his aunt and uncle, who lived near Shivaji Park, during this period, due to his hectic schedule. Sachin Tendulkar and his wife Anjali Meanwhile at school, he developed a reputation as a child prodigy. He had become a common conversation point in local cricketing circles, where there were suggestions already that he would become one of the greats. Sachin consistently featured in his school Shardashram Vidyamandir (English) team in Matunga Gujarati Seva Mandal (popularly coined MGSM) Shield. Besides school cricket, he also played club cricket, initially representing John Bright Cricket Club in Mumbais premier club cricket tournament, the Kanga League, and later went on to play 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 Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee, who took a world record 355 Test wickets, was unimpressed, suggesting that Tendulkar focus on his batting instead. On January 20, 1987, he also turned out as substitute for Imran Khans side in an exhibition game at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, to mark the golden jubilee of Cricket Club of India. A couple of months later, former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar gave him a pair of his own ultra light pads and consoled him to not get disheartened for not getting the Mumbai Cricket Associations Best junior cricket award(He was 14 years that time). It was the greatest source of encouragement for me, Tendulkar said nearly 20 years later after surpassing Gavaskars world record of 34 Test centuries. Sachin served as a ballboy in 1987 Cricket World Cup when India played against England in the semifinal in Mumbai. His season in 1988 was extraordinary, with Tendulkar scoring a century in every innings he played. He was involved in an unbroken 664-run partnership in a Lord Harris Shield inter-school game against St. Xaviers High School in 1988 with his friend and team-mate Vinod Kambli, who would also go on to represent India. The destructive pair reduced one bowler to tears and made the rest of the opposition unwilling to continue the game. Tendulkar scored 326 (not out) in this innings and scored over a thousand runs in the tournament.[50] This was a record partnership in any form of cricket until 2006, when it was broken by two under-13 batsmen in a match held at Hyderabad in India.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 20:16:17 +0000
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