Sachin Tendulkar is a professional cricketer from India. He made his debut in 1989 against Pakistan and has so far played 160 Tests & 435 ODIs. He also holds several world records in both forms of the game. Currently, he is playing for Indian National cricket team and "Mumbai Indians".

• On November 21, 2009, Sachin Tendulkar scored his 43rd Test century in the first Test against Srilanka in Ahmedabad. He also became the first batsman to cross 30,000 runs in International cricket during the match.

Sachin Tendulkar was born on 24th of April, 1973 in a middle class family in Mumbai. He was named after his family's favourite music director Sachin Dev Burman.http://www.merinews.com/article/sachin-tendulkars-twenty-glorious-years-of-cricket-part-i-family/15788194.shtml Sachin's father late Ramesh Tendulkar, who was a Marathi Novelist and teacher, had three other children-Ajit Tendulkar, Nitin Tendulkar and Savitai Tendulkar-from his first wife.http://www.expressindia.com/news/ie/daily/19990522/ige22032.html In 1990, Sachin Tendulkar met Anjali Mehta, daughter of Gujarathi industrialist Anand Mehta. They had a courtship of five years until they got married in 1995. Anjali Tendulkar is now a practicing paediatrician and they have two children-son Arjun Tendulkar(10) and daughter Sarah Tendulkar(12).http://cricketnext.in.com/news/anjali-tendulkar-recollects-meeting-sachin/45141-13-0.html

During childhood, Sachin was more interested in playing tennis than cricket. It was his brother Ajit Tendulkar who encouraged him to play cricket. At the age of 11, Sachin Tendulkar joined Sharadashram Vidya Mandir School to get trained under Bombay's renouned coach Ramakant Achrekar. During his early school days, he had aspired to become a fast bowler and went to MRF Pace Foundation. But he was sent back home suggesting him to focus on batting instead.http://www.surfindia.com/celebrities/sport-stars/sachin-tendulkar.html Then, he started focusing on batting and participated in school-level matches. At the age of 12, Sachin scored his first century in a Harris Shield tournament. In the next season(1986-87), he scored 2336 runs playing for his school team which includes 9 hundreds and 2 double hundreds. He continued his outstanding form in the next season also during which he scored two consecutive triple hundreds(329* and 346*) in Harris Shield tournament. His innings of 329* was also a record for highest parnership (664 runs) shared by Vinod Kambli.http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/434247.html

After seeing the performances of Sachin Tendulkar in the Harris Shield and Giles Shield tournaments, Mumbai’s selectors had decided to give him a chance to play in Ranji Trophy. Before selecting the team for Ranji Trophy, the selectors arranged trial matches. Sachin Tendulkar scored 55 runs in the first trial match and 54 runs in the second match. Vengserkar (who was the captain of Indian National cricket team and Mumbai, then) heard about Sachin Tendulkar’s unique batting style and invited him during the net practice of Indian team. Sachin Tendulkar was asked to play against Kapil Dev and other bowlers of Indian team in the nets. Sachin Tendulkar batted well against all the bowlers. Vengserkar was impressed by his confident batting and give his nod to select him for the Ranji Trophy team. Tendulkar played his first Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat on Dec 11, 1988 and scored a century on the second day of the match. Aged just 15 years and 232 days, Sachin Tendulkar had become the youngest player to score a century on debut in a first class match.http://books.google.com/books?id=Wa8olLPC2PoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

"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 feel that this player is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two...hi compactness, technique, stroke production... it all seemed to gel! in reference to Sachin Tendulkar."http://static.cricinfo.com/db/NATIONAL/IND/MICRO-SITES/SACHINZONE/best-quotes.html

• -Sir Don Bradman

"A number of innings that I have been able to sit back and watch of his (Tendulkar) over the years, I think he is an amazing player. I have always thought of him as the guy that sets the benchmark as far as batting is concerned and guys like me and the rest just chase and get as close as we can to him."http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hhEJNJY6YzPPn5mYay5r0yn0-g_Q

• -Ricky Ponting

"He is No. 1 in my book - the best player I have ever had the privilege of bowling to. ........ He's the best in the world, one of the most magnificent players there's ever been. He's also a nice guy, a soft-hearted bloke who gives 110% and just loves playing cricket."http://www.cricinfo.com/sachinat20/content/story/434423.html

• -Allan Donaldhttp://www.cricinfo.com/sachinat20/content/story/434423.html