Sachin Tendulkar Turns 50: Fifty Facts You need to Know about ‘Master Blaster’

The entire nation and cricketing fraternity have worshipped the great man, who had the magic to make an entire generation stay glued to their television screen.

His batting at the 22 yards have engrossed the mind of the Indians and created an unadulterated affection and respect, which exuberates even now, ten years after him hanging the gloves.

Sachin Tendulkar: 50 Facts about the ‘Master Blaster’

As Sachin Tendulkar turns 50 today, here are the 50 facts you must know about the ‘Little Master’-

1. Sachin Tendulkar has scored the most number of runs in International Cricket. He scored 15921 Test Runs, and 18426 ODI Runs.
2. Sachin Tendulkar is the highest scorer in both Test and ODI formats.
3. He has scored the most number of international hundreds with 100 centuries to his name.
4. Tendulkar scored 51 Test centuries and 49 ODI centuries in his international career.
5. He made his international debut in November, 1989 and played his final international match in November, 2013 – a career spanning a whopping 24 years.
6. Sachin first made his name after a 644-run partnership with Vinod Kambli in a Harris Shield Match. Two wards of Delhi’s Tihar Jail got named after the duo.
7. Sachin has played 200 Test matches in his career, the most by any player in the world.
8. Tendulkar’s best Test and ODI batting rank has been 1 (in both formats), while his best-ever T20I ranking was 63.
9. Tendulkar played one 1 T20I match in his career, India’s first-ever T20I match against South Africa. He scored 10 runs in that match.
10. Sachin was a ball-boy in the 1987 ODI World Cup. He functioned as a ball boy in the India-Zimbabwe match at the Wankhede stadium.

    

11. He is a fanatic about cars, and his dream was to buy a Maruti car. And his first car was a Maruti-800.
12. Sachin loves to eat exotic meats and once fed crocodile meat to former India captain Sourav Ganguly.
13. Sachin Tendulkar once fielded for Pakistan in a festival exhibition match against India in 1987.
14. Sachin Tendulkar was the first player to score an ODI double-century. He scored it against South Africa in Indore.
15. He is the only Indian player to play six World Cups. (1992, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011).
16. Sachin’s mother Rajni Tendulkar watched him play from the stands for the first time in 2013, which was the last Test of Tendulkar.
17. Sachin’s jersey no. 10 was retired by BCCI in 2017.
18. His first commercial was for Boost, a chocolate-based drink company.
19. Sachin used to love Tennis and as a kid, was a huge fan of Tennis star John McEnroe. He even used to tie a band around his head to emulate his idol.
20. Sachin’s elder brother Ajit Tendulkar was the biggest force behind his cricketing journey.
21. Sachin was a naughty kid in his childhood and often used to get punished for his mischief.
22. He made his international debut at Sialkot in Pakistan in 1989.
23. Sachin scored a duck in his ODI debut.
24. Sachin is the only player to score a debut century in three domestic tournaments – Ranji Trophy, Irani Trophy and Duleep Trophy.
25. Sachin Tendulkar is the only player among the fab five (Sachin, Sourav, Dravid, Laxman, Kumble) of Indian cricket to win an IPL title.
26. The Mumbai-born player met his dear friend Sourav Ganguly for the first time in an U-15 zonal match. Sourav was playing for East Zone while Sachin was representing West Zone.
27. Tendulkar was alleged to use bigger size bats as England bowler Allan Mullaly accused him of doing that.
28. Sachin Tendulkar was bestowed with Bharat Ratna in 2014, the highest civilian award for an Indian. He was the first sportsperson to achieve that.
29. In his first Test in 1989, Sachin used pads which were gifted to him by Sunil Gavaskar.
30. Sachin has the record of playing the highest number of ODI and Test matches.
31. Tendulkar owned 13 coins for lasting an entire session without getting dismissed during his training days with his coach Sir Ramakant Achrekar. Mr. Achrekar used to give Sachin one coin for each day.

    

32. He was named after the famous music director Sachin Dev Burman.
33. Sachin met his wife Anjali at the Mumbai Airport in 1990, when he was just 17 years old. He went on to tie the knot at the age of 22.
34. Sachin won the Player of the Tournament award in the 2003 ODI World Cup.
35. Sachin holds the record for most hundreds in ODI in a calendar year, when he scored 9 centuries in 1998.
36. He has been dismissed in the nineties 28 times across all formats, most by a cricketer. In international cricket, he has been dismissed in the 90s 23 times.
37. He also holds the record of most Player of the Match awards in World Cup with 9 awards.
38. Sachin also has a huge love for suits and clothes, as revealed by Sourav Ganguly once.
39. Sachin Tendulkar is an avid follower of Table Tennis and was one of the best Table Tennis players in the Indian team during his playing days.
40. Tendulkar bid farewell to international cricket at his home ground in Mumbai in 2013. His final international match came against West Indies.
41. He is musically a Kishore Kumar fan and also has an affinity for the rock group Dire Straits.
42. Sachin took three crucial wickets in the Eden Test against Australia in 2001, which is regarded as the turning point of Indian cricket. His three wickets on the final day helped India to win an epic match. The match is mainly known for VVS Laxman’s 281-run knock.
43. Sachin Tendulkar bats and bowls right-handed, but his eating and writing is predominantly on his left hand. Tendulkar is ambidextrous.
44. Tendulkar was nominated to India’s parliament as a Rajya Sabha member. He is the only cricketer to be nominated thus far.
45. He is a partial owner of the Indian Super League football team Kerala Blasters.
46. Sachin Tendulkar revealed the bowler who troubled him most in his career was former South Africa captain late Hansie Cronje.
47. Tendulkar has played across 90 venues during his career, the most by any cricketer.
48. Sachin’s highest score in Test cricket is 248, which came against Bangladesh. His highest ODI score is 186, which came against New Zealand.
49. Sachin was never dismissed for a duck in any format in the final five years of his international career. He batted 136 innings without scoring a duck, the second-most by any player in the history of the game.
50. Sachin has scored 20 centuries against Australia in all formats of the game, which is the most centuries scored by a player against a single international opponent.