200 Sachin Tendulkar facts

21. Sachin’s first man of the match in a Test was at Manchester in 1990 and he got Magnum champagne bottle as the prize. Sachin preserved it for eight years and finally uncorked it on his daughter Sara’s first birthday.

22. Sachin had to wait for 79 matches for his first ODI century on September 9, 1994. By that time he had scored seven Test hundreds.

23. He was without a bat contract during the 1996 World Cup in which he emerged as the highest run-getter.

24. After his Perth hundred in 1992, The famous London Times correspondent John Woodcock, in his ’70s, was moved enough to say: “Gentlemen, he is The best batsman I have seen in my life. And unlike most of you, I have seen Bradman.”

25. In 1992, he became the first overseas player to represent Yorkshire county team.

26. Aged 19, it made him the youngest Indian to play in county cricket

27. On November 14, 1992, playing against South Africa at Kingsmead in Durban, Tendulkar became the first batsman to have been declared run out by a third umpire.

28. In 1997 Sachin was one of the five cricketers selected as Wisden Cricketer of the Year.

29. In 1998 Sachin was chosen for the 1997-98 Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.

30. When then BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur was asked why was Tendulkar not seen at the presentation after Pakistan won the Chennai Test of 1999 despite a brilliant hundred from Tendulkar, a distraught Raj Singh said: “He is crying in the dressing room.”

31. Tendulkar refused to do a Pepsi ad because it required him to smash cricket balls with a fly swatter. He told ad-film maker Prahlad Kakkar that this will project him as bigger than the game of cricket. The ad was modified and stumps replaced the fly swatter.

32. In 1999 Sachin was conferred “Padma Shri” – India’s fourth highest civilian honour.

33. During the 2007 Lord’s Test, one of the most popular British actors Daniel Radcliffe  queued up for an autograph of Sachin at the end of the game.

34. In 2008 Sachin was conferred Padma Vibhushan – India’s second highest civilian honour.

35. Launched in 2009 by a company founded by former investment banker Karl Fowler, a book on Sachin Tendulkar – Tendulkar Opus -has 852 pages edged in gold leaf with each page measuring 50cm x 50cm and weighs 37 kg.

36. In 2010, Sachin was conferred an honorary rank of the Indian Air Force which made him the first sportsperson to be conferred a rank by the IAF and the first personality with no aviation background to receive the honour.

37. In the team bus, Tendulkar always takes the left window seat of the front row

38. In the dressing room, he chooses his spot first -Sachin always occupies a corner. Once he has exercised his choice, others rush to take their places.

39. Sachin follows Roger Federer and Formula 1 and understands music and medicine. Is fond of seafood and can hold a conversation on the merits of different wines.

40. The team has a system of monetary fines for players coming late (to the bus or a meeting or a function) and for flouting the dress code. But Tendulkar has never had to pay up in 23 years.