“I lived when Sachin played”
April 24, 1974, was the day when god was born in a middle-class Marathi family in Mumbai. Arguably a complete batsman of his time, the most prolific run-maker of
all time, and arguably the biggest cricket icon the game has ever known, Sachin Tendulkar will turn 43 tomorrow.
Introduced to cricket at the age of 11, Tendulkar was just 16 when he became the youngest player to represent in test cricket and was hit on the mouth by Waqar Younis but continued to bat, in a blood-soaked shirt. His first Test hundred, a match-saving one at Old Trafford, came when he was 17, and he had 16 Test hundreds before he turned 25. In 2000 he became the first batsman to have scored 50 international hundreds In 2005, he became the first cricketer to score 35 centuries in Test play.
In 2008, he passed Brian Lara as the leading Test run-scorer, and in the years after, he went past 13,000 Test runs 30,000 international runs, and 50 Test hundreds.
The maestro currently holds the record for most hundreds in both Tests and ODIs – and the feat is remarkable, considering that he didn’t score his first ODI hundred till his 79th match. At 36 years and 306 days, he broke a 40-year-old barrier by scoring the first double-century in one-day cricket. In 2012, when just one month short of his 39th birthday, he became the first player to score 100 international centuries, which like Bradman’s batting average, could be a mark that lasts for ever. Later that year, though, he announced his retirement from ODIs after a disappointing 18 months in international cricket. And on November 16, 2013, Tendulkar retired from Test cricket after a memorable 200th Test, on his home ground at the Wankhede Stadium against West Indies.
Paying a tribute to the little master on his 43rd birthday, we are presenting to you 43 records held by him in international cricket:
1. Most number of Test runs – 15,921
2. Most number of ODI runs – 18,426
3. Most numbers of Tests played – 200
4. Most number of ODIs played – 463
5. First batsman to score a double hundred in ODIs.
6. Most number of Test centuries – 51
7. Most number of ODI tons – 49
8. Most ODI half centuries – 96
9. Only batsman to have scored centuries on Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy debuts
10. Most number of runs (2,278) in World Cup history and joint highest (with Pakistan Javed Miandad) World Cup appearances (6 editions)
11. Most number of centuries in World Cup history – 6
12. First overseas cricketer to play for Yorkshire county in England
13. Most 90s in Tests – 10 (Joint with Steve Waugh and Rahul Dravid)
14. Most fifties in Tests – 68 (50+ scores – 119)
15. Most fours in Tests – 2,058 plus
16. Fastest to 10,000 runs in Tests (195 innings – joint with Brian Lara and Kumar Sangakkara)
17. Fastest to 14,000 runs in Tests – 279 innings
18. Fastest to 15,000 runs in Tests – 300
19. Most ODI runs in a calendar year – 1,894 in 1998 (9 hundred, 7 fifties)
20. Most runs in a single edition of World Cup – 673 in 2003
21. Most ODI hundreds in a calendar year – 9 in 1998
22. Most ODI hundreds against a team – 9 Vs Australia
23. Most 90s in ODIs – 18
24. First man to score 10,000 ODI runs
25. Fastest to 10,000 ODI runs – 259 innings
26. Fastest to 11,000 ODI runs – 276
27. Fastest to 12,000 ODI runs – 300
28. Fastest to 13,000 ODI runs – 321
29. Fastest to 14,000 ODI runs – 350
30. Fastest to 15,000 ODI runs – 377
31. First and the only batsman so far to score 15,000 ODI runs (also corresponding 16,000, 17,000 and 18,000 runs record holder). The second highest after Tendulkar’s tally is 14,234 by Sangakkara
32. Highest partnership for India for any wicket – 331 with Rahul Dravid (Vs New Zealand in 1999). This is overall second highest in ODI history
33. Highest partnership by a pair in ODIs – 8,227 runs – Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly (26 hundreds, 29 fifties in 179 innings) – Highest – 258
34. Most hundred partnerships by a pair in ODIs – Tendulkar and Ganguly – 26
35. Overall highest partnership by openers in ODIs – Tendulkar and Ganguly – 6,609 in 136 innings (21 hundreds and 23 fifties)
36. Highest partnership by a pair in Tests – 6,920 runs – Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid (20 hundreds, 29 fifties in 143 innings)
37. Most hundred partnerships by a pair in Tests – Tendulkar and Dravid – 20
38. Most consecutive ODI matches played – 185
39. India’s youngest ODI captain at 23 years and 126 days (Vs Sri Lanka in 1996)
40. Most Man-of-the-match awards won in ODIs – 62
41. Most Man-of-the-series awards won in ODIs – 15
42. Youngest Indian player to feature in Tests and ODIs – Test – At the age of 16 years and 205 days (Vs Pakistan in Karachi in November 1989) ODI – 16 years and 238 days (Vs Pakistan in Gujranwala in December 1989)
43. First and the only cricketer in history to have scored 100 international centuries.
The first sportsperson to be awarded Bharat Ratna, the little master has achieved several other records in cricket but we have included only 43.
Have a look on 43 quotes on Sachin Tendulkar:
1. “Sachin Tendulkar has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years. It is time we carried him on our shoulders” – Virat Kohli after India won the 2011 World Cup
2. “I have seen God, he bats at no. 4 for India” – Matthew Hayden
3. I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I felt that this player is playing with a style similar to mine, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two…his compactness, technique, stroke production – it all seemed to gel! – Sir Donald Bradman
4. “I am fortunate that I’ve to bowl at him only in the nets!” – Anil Kumble
5. “We did not lose to a team called India. We lost to a man called Sachin” – Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)
6. “India me aap Prime Minister ko ek baar katghare me khada kar sakte hain. Par Sachin Tendulkar par ungli nahi utha Sakte.” – Navjot Singh Sidhu
7. Harder he works, the luckier he gets – Ian Chappell
8. I’ll be going to bed having nightmares of Sachin just running down the wicket and belting me back over the head for six. He was unstoppable. I don’t think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar. He is just an amazing player – Shane Warne
9. I think he is marvellous. I think he will fit in whatever category of Cricket that has been played or will be played, from the first ball that has ever been bowled to the last ball that’s going to be. He can play in any era and at any level. I would say he’s 99.5% perfect – Viv Richards on Sachin Tendulkar
10. Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don’t know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives – BBC Sports, on Sachin Tendulkar
11. Twenty20 cricket is the dessert and you can’t survive on that. Who wants to eat only desserts? – Sachin Tendulkar on T20 cricket
12. He is a perfectly balanced batsman and knows perfectly well when to attack and when to play defensive cricket. He has developed the ability to treat bowlers all over the world with contempt and can destroy any attack with utmost ease – Greg Chappell
13. He has defined cricket in his fabulous, impeccable manner. He is to batting what Shane Warne is to bowling – Richie Benaud
14. India’s fortune will depend on how many runs the little champion scores. There is no doubt Tendulkar is the real thing – Sunil Gavaskar
15. “There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others” – Andy Flower
16. “Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the world” – Allan Donald
17. “On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!” – Peter Roebuck
18. If I’ve to bowl to Sachin, I’ll bowl with my helmet on. He hits the ball so hard – Dennis Lillee
19. Sachin is a genius. I’m a mere mortal – Brian Lara
20. When you bowl at him you are not just trying to get him out, you are trying to impress him. “I want him to walk off thinking ‘that Flintoff, he’s all right isn’t he? I feel privileged to have played against him – Andrew Flintoff
21. Don’t bowl bad balls he hits the good ones for fours – Michael Kasprowicz
22. Why did you get out to such a silly shot? – Anjali Tendulkar wasn’t very happy with her husband’s shot selection
23. What we need is 10 Tendulkars – Paul Strang
24. Today, he showed the world why he is considered the best batsman around. Some of the shots he played were simply amazing. Earlier, opposing teams used to feel that Sachin’s dismissal meant they could win the game. Today, I feel that the Indian players, too, feel this way – Wasim Akram
25. You might pitch a ball on the off stump and think you have bowled a good ball and he walks across and hits it for two behind midwicket. His bat looks so heavy but he just waves it around like it’s a toothpick. – Brett Lee
26. I was fielding in the covers when Tendulkar came out to bat in his debut Test at Karachi. I still remember Waqar Younis was in peak form at that time. Tendulkar tried to drive Waqar through the covers off his very first ball in Test cricket but was beaten all ends up. But I walked to captain Imran Khan and told him ‘this kid looks very good’ and Imran agreed with me – Abdul Qadir
27. He has been in form longer than some of our guys have been alive – Daniel Vettori
28. I have joked before that there is a good chance that I might retire before Tendulkar – Mahendra Singh Dhoni
29. Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed because even the Lord is watching – From a fan at the SCG
30. To me he will not just be remembered as a great player and a lovely human being, but as somebody who tried to learn Bengali for the last 14 years but never managed to do so! – Sourav Ganguly
31. Nothing bad can happen to us if we’re on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it – Hashim Amla
32. Sachin was so focused. He never looked like getting out. He was batting with single-minded devotion. It was truly remarkable. It was a lesson – Martina Navratilova
33. Technically, you can’t fault Sachin. Seam or spin, fast or slow nothing is a problem – Geoffrey Boycott
34. I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing us to breathe the same air as you do – Shahrukh Khan
35. The archives recall not one single incriminating incident, not one drunken escapade, not one reported affair, not one spat with a team-mate or reporter … As Matthew Parris wondered of Barack Obama in these pages recently, is he human? – Michael Atherton
36. With Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, it was better to be friends and make them smile rather than wind them up – Shane Warne
37. The thing I admire most about this man is his poise. The way he moves, elegantly without ever looking out of place in any condition or company, suggests his pedigree – Bishan Singh Bedi
38. Playing in the same team as Sachin is a huge honour. His balance of mind, shrewd judgment, modesty and, above all, his technical brilliance make him my all-time hero. You can’t get a more complete cricketer than Sachin. He has everything that a cricketer needs to have – Rahul Dravid
39. The thing I like the most about Sachin is his intensity. After being in the game for so long, he still has the same desire to do well for India in any international match. I tell you what, this man is a legend. – Sourav Ganguly
40. Test cricket is bloody hard work, especially when you’ve got Sachin batting with what looks like a three-metre-wide bat – Michael Hussey
41. You can never say that he is out of form. He is a volcano waiting to explode and we hope he doesn’t do that against us in the one-dayers – Daryl Tuffey
42. I think you are at the wrong press conference – Sachin Tendulkar when asked about retirement
43. Sachin is cricket’s God – Barry Richards.
Sachin and cricket were a marriage meant to be. On his 43rd birthday, we wish the living legend a happy and a prosperous life.