Sachin Tendulkar ~ INFOSCOPE

Sachin at Castrol Golden Spanner Awards (crop).jpg

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar ( born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former cricketer widely acknowledged as the greatestbatsman of the modern generation, popularly holds the title "God of Cricket" among his fans He is also acknowledged as the greatest cricketer of all time. He took up cricket at the age of eleven, made his Test debut against Pakistan at the age of sixteen, and went on to represent Mumbai domestically and India internationally for close to twenty-four years. He is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first batsman to score a Double Century in a One Day International, and the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket. In October 2013, he became the 16th player and first Indian to aggregate 50,000 runs in all recognized cricket (First-class, List A and Twenty20combined).

In 2002, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Don Bradman, and the second greatest ODI batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards. Later in his career, Tendulkar was a part of the Indian team that won the 2011 World Cup, his first win in six World Cup appearances for India.He had previously been named "Player of the Tournament" at the 2003 edition of the tournament, held in South Africa. In 2013, he was the only Indian cricketer included in an all-time Test World XI named to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

Tendulkar received the Arjuna Award in 1994 for outstanding sporting achievement, theRajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1997, India's highest sporting honour, and thePadma Shri and Padma Vibhushan awards in 1999 and 2008, respectively, India's fourth and second highest civilian awards and within a few hours of ending of his final match on 16 November 2013, the Prime Minister's Office announced the decision to award Tendulkar with the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, making him the youngest recipient to date and the first ever sportsperson to receive the award.He also won the 2010 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year at the ICC awards. In 2012, Tendulkar was nominated to Rajya Sabha, the upper house of theParliament of India. He was also the first sportsperson (and the first without an aviation background) to be awarded the honorary rank of Group Captain by the Indian Air Force. In 2012, he was named an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia.

In December 2012, Tendulkar announced his retirement from ODIs. He retired from Twenty20 cricket in October 2013 and subsequently announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, retiring on 16 November 2013 after playing his 200th and final Test match, against the West Indies in Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.Tendulkar played 664 international cricket matches in total, scoring 34,357 runs.

Career achievements

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Tendulkar's Test match batting career up to February 2008, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line)

Sachin Tendulkar is the most prolific run scorer in one-day internationals with 18,426 runs. With a current aggregate of 15,470 Test runs, he surpassed Brian Lara's previous record tally of 11,953 runs as the highest run scorer in test matches in the second Test ofAustralia's 2008 tour of India in Mohali. Tendulkar described "It is definitely the biggest achievement in 19 years of my career" on the day he achieved the record. He also holds the record of highest number of centuries in both Test (51) and ODI (49) cricket. (49). On 16 March 2012, Tendulkar scored his 100th international hundred. It came against Bangladesh in the league matches of Asia Cup 2012. Throughout his career, he has made a strong impact on Indian cricket and was, at one time, the foundation of most of the team's victories. In recognition with his impact on sport in a cricket-loving country like India, Tendulkar has been granted the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award, Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India. He was also chosen as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1997 and is ranked by the Wisden 100 as the second best test batsman and ODI batsman of all time.

Tendulkar has also consistently done well in Cricket World Cups. Tendulkar was the highest run scorer of the 1996 Cricket World Cupand 2003 Cricket World Cup. After his century against England during group stages of 2011 Cricket World Cup, he became the player to hit most number of centuries in Cricket World Cups with six centuries and the first player to score 2000 runs in World Cup cricket. Tendulkar has scored over 1000 runs in a calendar year in ODIs 7 times, and 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. On 24 February 2010, Tendulkar broke the previous world record for highest individual innings in an ODI, and became the first male cricketer to score a double-century in one-day cricket. He made 200 runs and broke the previous record of 194 runs, jointly held by Pakistan opener Saeed Anwarand Zimbabwe's Charles Coventry.

He has been Man of the Match 13 times in Test matches and Man of the Series four times, out of them twice in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. The performances earned him respect from Australian cricket fans and players. Similarly he has been Man of the Match 62 times in One day International matches and Man of the Series 14 times. He is the leading run-scorer and centurymaker in Test and one-day international cricket. He is the first player to score a double century in Men's ODIcricket. He also holds the world record for playing highest number of Test and ODI matches. Tendulkar is the only cricketer to accomplish the feat of scoring a hundred centuries in international cricket which includes 49 ODI and 51 Test centuries. He is also the only player to score fifty centuries in Test cricket, and the first to score fifty centuries in all international cricket combined. On 17 October 2008, when he surpassed Brian Lara's record for the most runs scored in Test cricket, he also became the first batsman to score 12,000, 13,000, 14,000 and 15,000 runs in that form of the game, having also been the third batsman and first Indian to pass 11,000 runs in Test cricket. He was also the first player to score 10,000 runs in one-day internationals, and also the first player to cross every subsequent 1000-run mark that has been crossed in ODI cricket history. In the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, Tendulkar surpassed Australia's Allan Border to become the player to cross the 50-run mark the most number of times in Test cricket history, and also the second ever player to score 11 Test centuries against Australia, tying with Sir Jack Hobbsof England more than 70 years previously. On 8 November 2011, Tendulkar became the first batsman to score 15,000 runs in Test Cricket.

National honours

1994 - Arjuna Award, by the Government of India in recognition of his outstanding achievement in sports.
1997-98 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest honour given for achievement in sports.
1999 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.
2001 - Maharashtra Bhushan Award, Maharashtra State's highest Civilian Award.
2008 - Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award.
2014 - Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award announced and to be presented on 26 January 2014, the Republic Day of India.

Other honours

1997 - Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
2003 - Player of the tournament in 2003 Cricket World Cup.
2004, 2007, 2010 - ICC World ODI XI.
2009, 2010, 2011 - ICC World Test XI.
2010 - Outstanding Achievement in Sport and the Peoples Choice Award at The Asian Awards in London.
2010 - Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World.
2010 - ICC Award-Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for cricketer of the year.
2010 - LG People's Choice Award.
2010 - Made a Honorary Group captain by the Indian Air Force.
2011 - BCCI Cricketer of the Year award.
2011 - Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year award.
2012 - Wisden India Outstanding Achievement award.
2012 - Honorary Life Membership of Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG)
2012 - Honorary Member of the Order of Australia, given by the Australian government.
2013 - Indian Postal Service released a stamp of Tendulkar and he became the second Indian after Mother Teresa to have such stamp released in their lifetime.