Full name: Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
Nickname: Tendlya, Little Master, God of Cricket.

Wife: Dr Anjali Mehta.
Children: Sara and Arjun.

Born: 24 April 1973.
Born Place: Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India.

Zodiac Sign: Taurus.
Education: Sharadashram Vidyamandir School.
Height: 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m).
Batting Style: Right-handed.
Bowling Style: Right-arm leg-spin, off-spin, medium pace.
Main Role: Batsman.
National Side: India.
Major Teams: India, Asia XI, Mumbai, Mumbai Indians, Yorkshire.
Test Debut: 15 November 1989 v Pakistan.
ODI Debut: 18 December 1989 v Pakistan.
Last ODI: 18 March 2012 v Pakistan.
Retires from ODIs: December 23, 2012.
ODI Shirt No. 10.
Only T20I: 1 December 2006 v South Africa.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born on 24 April 1973 in Bombay to Ramesh and Rajni Tendulkar. His father gave him the name Sachin after his favourite music director, Sachin Dev Burman. Sachin has three siblings Ajit, Nitin and Savita. Being the elder brother Ajit gave him the initial encouragement to play cricket.

He went to Shradashram Vidyamandir, a high school in Mumbai, where he began his cricketing career under his coach Ramakant Achrekar. He attended the MRF Pace Foundation during his schooldays to train as a fast bowler, but Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee, who saw him training, was not much impressed and suggested that Tendulkar should focus on his batting instead. As a young boy, Tendulkar would practise for hours at the net and be driven hard by his coach Achrekar.

While at school, his extraordinary batting skills got noticed by the sports circuit. People felt that the young boy would soon become one of the greats in cricket. In the 1988 season, he scored a century in every inning that he played. In one of the inter-school matches that year, he had an unbroken 664-run partnership with friend and teammate Vinod Kambli.

From his early days, he impressed many with his batting. At just 13 he started playing for the cricket club of India and at the age of 15, he played for Bombay in a state-level competition. He scored a century on his debut in first-class cricket and he was the youngest to do so. He scored a century in the first matches of both the Deodhar and Duleep Trophy.

Within one year of his entry into the state level, he got in the eye of Indian selectors and was selected to play for India against Pakistan at the age of 16 in 1989. At the very young age of 16, Sachin played his first Test match against Pakistan in Karachi in 1989. In this Test, he received several blows to his body at the hands of Waqar Younis, a pace bowler. He made just 15 runs. In the last test in Sialkot, he had a bloody nose from a bouncer, but he went on playing. He scored better in the subsequent games, scoring 53 runs of 18 balls at Peshawar. Though he made only 15 in that test match as a young batsman showed a lot of promise. He made his ODI debut in December 1989 against Pakistan.

He scored his first test century in 1990 against England at the age of 18 and became the second-youngest to do so in test history. The English were highly impressed by his disciplined display of immense maturity. He played many types of strokes. His off-side shots from the back foot greatly impressed the English. Though short in height, he confidently faced short deliveries from the English pace bowlers. His great performance made him look like the embodiment of Gavaskar, India’s former famous opener. However, it took him 79 ODIs to get to his first century in this format. On 9 September 1994, he scored his first ODI century against Australia. He became the first batsman to reach 200 in ODIs and he did it in against South Africa.

He played his first world cup in 1992 and since then he has played for India in six world cups the most by any cricketer in the world. He has scored more than 200 runs in these world cups, again the highest by any batsman. In the 2003 Cricket World Cup, he made 673 runs in 11 matches which enabled India to reach the final. Although Australia won the trophy Tendulkar was given the Man of the Tournament award.

His great contribution to Indian cricket has gained him several accolades from around the world. He received the Arjuna award in 1994, Wisden Cricketer of the year 1997, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award (Highest award given to Indian sportsmen) in 1997, Padma Shri in 1999, Maharashtra Bhushan Award in 2001, and became the first cricketer to be given Honorary Group Captain post in Indian Air Force and received Padma Vibhushan in 2008 (second highest civilian award given in India).