100 special facts about Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar announced this morning that he will retire from cricket after his 200th Test.

And after 24 years,

Having made his debut in 1989, Tendulkar has lit up the international stage with a majestic career of batting.

He became the first man to score 100 international centuries among and has also scored more international runs.

And in celebration of his landmark, achieved with 51 Test centuries and 49 ODI hundreds, we have compiled a century of facts for you to enjoy...

1) His full name is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar
2) He was born on April 24, 1973, in Mumbai
3) He has two brothers and a sister. His elder brother Ajit encouraged him to play cricket
4) He was named after legendary Indian music director Sachin Dev Burman
5) His nicknames are Little Master, Tendlya, The Little Champion, and Master Blaster
6) Sachin stands just 5ft 5ins tall
7) He is a right-handed batsman
8) He is also a right-handed spin bowler
9) But he writes with his left hand
10) He attended the MRF Pace Foundation to get training as a fast bowler, Australian bowling legend Dennis Lillee was unimpressed and recommended he focus on batting
11) He was a ball boy during the 1987 World Cup semi-finals between India and England at Wankhende. England won
12) Growing up, Sachin would ask his friend Ramesh Pradhe to dip a rubber ball in water and hurl it at him. He wanted to see the wet marks left on the bat to know whether he had middled the ball
13) International teammate Praveen Amre bought him his first pair of international quality cricket shoes
14) A prankster, he once put a hose pipe into Sourav Ganguly's room and turned on the tap. Ganguly awoke to find his gear floating
15) Sachin calls Ganguly Babu Moshai, meaning elder brother in Bengali. Ganguly calls him Chota Babu – little brother
16) He was considered a child prodigy during his high school days. He never played in under 19 league, instead moving straight into senior cricket
17) In his senior season of 1988, aged 15, he scored a century in every innings he played
18) On 11 December 1988, aged just 15 years and 232 days, Tendulkar scored 100 not out in his debut first-class match for Bombay against Gujarat, making him the youngest Indian to score a century on first-class debut
19) He is half of the world record cricket partnership of 664 runs, set with schoolfriend Vinod Kambli in an inter-school competition in 1988
20) The pair sang and whistled during their 664-run record stand to avoid eye contact with the coach's assistant, who wanted to declare while the duo wanted to bat on. Sachin ended on 326 not out
21) He made his Test debut for India against Pakistan on November 15, 1989, scoring 15
22) On his debut he wore a set of cricket pads given to him when he was 16 by his hero Sunil Gavaskar
23) He always puts his left pad on first when kitting himself up for the crease
24) He made his One Day International debut on December 18, 1989 – but Waqar Younis got him out for a duck
25) His chosen shirt number when he played ODIs was 10 or 99
26) Sachin went 79 matches before scoring his first ODI century – by which time he had scored seven Test hundreds
27) During the England tour of 1990, he became the second youngest cricketer to score a Test Century at Old Trafford Manchester
28) He was the first overseas player to play for Yorkshire, joining in 1992
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29) Aged 19, it made him the youngest Indian to play in county cricket
30) The first brand which Sachin endorsed was the health drink Boost. He was seen alongside Kapil Dev in many of their adverts from 1992 onwards
31) Other brands he has promoted include Pepsi, which saw him appear in an advert alongside king of Bollywood Shahrukh Khan. He joined cricketers Karl Hooper and Shane Warne for a commercial which ran during the 2003 World Cup
32) In 1992 Sachin became the youngest cricketer to reach 1,000 runs in Test cricket
33) Sachin’s record of five test centuries before he turned 20 is a world record, still held by him
34) Sachin was the first batsman ever to be given out by the third umpire, when he was run out against South Africa in the first test in Durban in 1992
35) Tendulkar's immense popularity saw him be an early pioneer in India on cricket business dealings, signing a record sports management deal with Worldtel in 1995 worth $5.7million over five years. In 2001 he signed a new deal for $15.2million, switching to Saatchi and Saatchi's ICONIX in 2006 for a deal worth $34.2million over three years
36) He did not have a bat sponsorship contract until 1996
37) Tendulkar holds the current record (217 against NZ in 1999/2000 season) for the highest score in Test cricket by an Indian when captaining the side
38) He also holds the record for the highest 2nd wicket partnership with Rahul Dravid against New Zealand in 1990/2000
39) In 2002 cricket bible Wisden rated him as the second greatest Test batsman, behind Sir Don Bradman
40) In 2003 Wisden rated Sachin the greatest ever ODI player
41) In 2010 he won the ICC Award-Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for cricketer of the year
42) On 3 September 2010 he became the only sportsman to be made an Honorary Group captain by the Indian Air Force
43) He was the first cricketer to score 200 runs in an ODI Game, against South Africa in 2010. He held the record for the highest individual score in ODI cricket until it was recently broken by his team mate Virender Sehwag
44) He is the only cricketer to have featured in six ODI World Cups
45) He also has the highest number of World Cup Man of the Match awards
46) He holds the record for the most number of runs scored in a single World Cup after racking up 673 runs in the 2003 tournament
47) His hundred against England during the group stages of last year’s Cricket World Cup gave him more centuries than any other player in World Cups, with six
48) That 100 also made him the first player to score 2,000 runs in World Cup cricket
49) He is the only cricketer to receive Rajiv Khel Ratna, India’s highest sporting honour
50) He is the highest ever run scorer in ODIs
51) Sachin also holds the record for most hundreds in ODIs with 41


52) But he doesn’t always make it to a century – he also has the largest number of ODI innings in the 90s
53) He was the first cricketer to pass 10,000 runs in ODIs
54) He went on to become the first cricketer to pass 15,000 runs in ODIs too
55) Sachin also holds the record for scoring most boundaries in ODIs
56) He is also the first batsman to cross 15,000 runs in Test cricket
57) Run machine Sachin is the first player to reach 25,000 international runs
58) And the first to reach 30,000 international runs
59) He is the only player to have taken 150 wickets and scored more than 15,000 runs in ODIs
60) And the only player to have taken 40 wickets and scored more than 11,000 runs in Tests
61) Sachin also holds the record for most number of Test appearances at 198
62) He has the most Test 50s in history
63) Despite all his success, Sachin has never scored a Test century at Lord’s, the only major venue where he has not notched 100
64) Sachin’s career average in Tests stands at an impressive 53, while his ODI average finished at 44.83
65) Tendulkar features in Bradman’s all time Test XI, the only player from the current generation
66) The Don, rated by many as the greatest batsman of all time, considered Tendulkar to have a batting style similar to his. "Bradman was most taken by Tendulkar's technique, compactness and shot production, and had asked his wife to have a look at Tendulkar, having felt that Tendulkar played like him. Bradman's wife, Jessie, agreed that they did appear similar,” his biography records
67) In August 2008 Sachin became the first Indian cricketer, and only the third player in Test match history, to play 150 matches when he was selected for the third Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo
68) Sachin’s talents extend beyond batting. While he is not a regular bowler, he can bowl medium pace, leg spin, and off spin, and is often used as a partnership breaker
69) He has taken 45 Test match wickets and is the 10th highest wicket taker for India in ODIs
70) Tendulkar has scored more than 1,000 runs in a calendar year in ODIs seven times
71) In 1998 he scored 1894 runs, easily the record for the highest number of runs scored by any player in a single calendar year for one day internationals
72) Sachin has also had success in Twenty20. He was made captain for the Mumbai Indians in the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 competition in 2008
73) He was also made the team's "icon player" - signing for more than $1million
74) Tendulkar set the record for most runs in an IPL season in 2010, scoring 618 runs in 14 innings with the Mumbai Indians
75) He was declared player of the tournament for his performance during the season. He also won Best Batsman and Best Captain awards at the 2010 IPL Awards ceremony
76) Sachin had less success in his two short spells as international captain, with only four Test wins in 25 matches
77) Tendulkar has been on Twitter since May 2010, tweeting as @sachin_rt
78) He is the only Indian cricketer to have a waxwork at Madame Tussaud’s
79) He is known for his unique punch style of hitting the ball over square. He is also renowned for his picture-perfect straight drive, often completed with no follow-through. The straight drive is his favourite shot
80) Sachin is rated as the best batsman in his generations by many contempories, including Glenn McGrath and Allan Donald. “There's Steve Waugh and there's Brian Lara, who was wonderful in 1995, but Tendulkar is a class above, consistently special,” said Donald
81) Tendulkar has been a partner in two restaurants Tendulkar’s at Colaba, Mumbai, and Sachin’s in Bangalore
82) His favourite actor is Amitabh Bacchan, after watching the films Deewar and Zanjeer
83) Tendulkar is a Hindu
84) He is one of the first sportsmen, along with Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand to receive Padma Vibhusan in 2008, which is Indian’s second highest civilian honour
85) His favourite cricket ground is the Sydney cricket ground
86) He uses an incredibly heavy bat, weighing in at 3.2lbs
87) Tendulkar’s sporting idols are John McEnroe, Sunil Gavaskar, Imran Khan and Sir Vivian Richards
88) Sachin made a special appearance in the Bollywood film Stumped in 2003, appearing as himself
89) Sachin Tendulkar waved the chequered flag at the Indian F1 Grand Prix in 2011
90) He is a big fan of motorsport and once received a Ferrari 360 Modena presented by F1 world champion Michael Schumacher, given to mark him equalling Don Bradman’s record of 29 Test centuries in 2002
91) The car caused him a few headaches, though, with Fiat India eventually paying the import duty after the then finance minister’s decision to waive the tax created a political storm
92) His favourite movie is Coming To America
93) He is set to star in a series of Virgin Comics as the strip’s superhero
94) He married Anjali in 1995. She does not eat or drink while he is batting

95) Being married to the world’s most successful cricketer has its problems. The couple abandoned a trip to the cinema to see Roja when Sachin mislaid the glasses he was using as a disguise, along with a beard, in the interva
96) The couple have a son named Arjun and a daughter named Sara. Arjun is a budding cricketer who bats left-handed and bowls right arm
97) The children would be eligible to play for England – his mum’s mum Annabel is English. Don’t bet on it happening though…
98) He sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year through Annabel's Mumbai-based NGO Apnalaya.
99) Shane Warne once said: “I would go to bed having nightmares of Sachin dancing down the ground and hitting me for sixes”
100) His 100th 100 reinforced Tendulkar’s position as the most worshipped cricketer in the world. During the Australian tour of India in 1998 Matthew Hayden said: "I have seen God. He bats at no. 4 in India in Tests”