200 Sachin Tendulkar facts

1. His father named him after the legendary music director Sachin Dev Burman.

2. During his school days, he grew his hair and tied a band around it to copy his idol, tennis legend John McEnroe.

3. While growing up, Sachin would ask his friend Ramesh Pardhe to dip a rubber ball in water and hurl it at him to see the wet marks left on the bat to know whether he had middled the ball!

4. Praveen Amre bought him his first pair of international quality cricket shoes

5. When Sachin was fourteen, Sunil Gavaskar gave him a pair of his own ultra-light pads. However they were stolen when Sachin was at an Under-15 national camp in Indore.

6. Dilip Vengsarkar gifted Sachin a Gunn & Moore bat after he was picked for the Bombay Under-15 team.

7. Sachin has 13 coins from his coach Ramakant Achrekar. He would win a coin if he could get through an entire session of nets without being dismissed.

8. Raj Singh Dungarpur was instrumental in amending the rules of the iconic Cricket Club of India to allow the fourteen-year old Sachin to use its dressing room despite his age

9. Sachin wanted to be a fast bowler but was rejected by Australian great Dennis Lillee at the MRF Pace Academy at Chennai in 1987.

10. In August 1987, Sachin was ignored for Bombay Cricket Association’s Best Junior Cricketer of the Year award, Sunil Gavaskar then wrote an encouraging letter to the fourteen-year-old with the postscript: ‘Don’t be disappointed at not getting the Best Junior cricketer award from BCA. If you look at the best award winners, you will find one name missing and that person has not done badly in Test cricket!’

11. He was a ball boy during the 1987 World Cup semi-final between India and England at Wankhede.

12. He fielded for Pakistan as a substitute during a one-day practice match against India at Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium in 1988.

13. Playing for his school Sharadashram against St. Xavier’s at the Azad Maidan in February, 1988, he was associated in the then world record unbroken stand of 664 runs with Vinod Kambli for the third-wicket. Both players remained unbeaten on 326 and 349 respectively.

14. He sang and whistled with Vinod Kambli during their 664-run record stand in the Harris Shield tournament in 1988 to avoid eye contact with the coach’s assistant who wanted to declare while the duo wanted to bat on.

15. Two wards in Delhi’s Tihar Jail were named after Sachin and Vinod Kambli, after the duo shared a 664-run unbroken partnership in a school tournament.

16. Gursharan Singh played with one hand (despite a broken finger) to help Sachin get a superb century in the Irani Cup game of 1989-90.

17. Tendulkar holds the unique distinction of scoring a century on debut in Ranji Trophy, Irani Trophy and Duleep Trophy.

18. Sachin scored a duck on his One Day International debut against Pakistan at Gujranwala on December 18, 1989

19. Sachin was returning from India’s tour of England in 1990 when he met his future wife, Anjali, for the first time at the Mumbai airport. He was 17 then!

20. Sachin’s father-in-law, Anand Mehta, is a seven-time national champion in Bridge.