A-Z of Sachin Tendulkar

Australia: Always reserves his best for Australia, the most dominant team of his era. Against them, he averages 60.59 in Tests & 46.3 in ODIs — both above his career average.

Bombil fry: His favourite fish, his city’s famous sea catch.

Colombo: Scored his first ODI hundred at the city’s Premadasa Stadium during the 1994 Singer World Series match against Australia. It was his 80th one-dayer.

Denness: The infamous Mike Denness incident in the 2001 series in SA remains his most controversial moment. He was charged with ball tampering during the 2nd Test in Port Elizabeth.

Endurance: His is the longest One-day International career — well over 21 years.

Ferrari: His favourite drive.
Gwalior: The venue where he got his ODI double ton during the 2010 one-day series against South Africa.
Heavy bat: For someone of his small frame, he plays with one of the heaviest bats. His current willow weighs 1250 to 1300gms.
Innovation: He is a master of innovative strokeplay — the paddle sweep, the cheeky scoop to fine leg off good length balls of the medium pacers, the deliberate edge through slips in ODIs are some of his patent shots.
John McEnroe: Sachin Tendulkar’s childhood hero, who he still idolises.
Kenya: His 140* against them in the ’99 WC rescued India from early elimination. It came a few days after his dad passed away.
Lata Mangeshkar: His favourite singer. The veteran singer is called the nightingale of India.
McGrath/Muralitharan: The two bowlers who have dismissed him most times in his career, 13 each (in Tests and ODIs combined). Muralitharan has scalped him 8 times in Tests and 5 in ODIs while McGrath has claimed his wicket 6 times in Tests and 7 in ODIs.
Noughts: He’s been dismissed for a duck 14 times in Tests (178) and 20 times in ODIs (453).
Old Trafford: Venue of his first Test hundred. He hit that at the age of 17.
Paediatrician: Sachin Tendulkar’s wife Anjali is a paediatrician. They got married in 1996 and have two children — daughter, Sara, (born, 12 October 1997), and son, Arjun (born, 24 September 1999).
Qadir: It were the sixes against the Pakistani leg-spinner at Peshawar on his debut tour that announced his arrival. As the legend goes, Abdul Qadir challenged him and he was up to it.
Ramesh Tendulkar: His humility endears him to his fans, and his father played a big role in mentoring him to be a good human. After every feat, he looks heavenwards to pay homage to him.
Sharjah sand-storm: The two back-to-back tons in the 1998 Coca-Cola Cup in the desert kingdom are regarded as his all-time best.
Tennis elbow: The worst injury he has suffered in his career. He wears elbow brace for protection.
Upper cut: While most people term this as Sehwag special, it was Sachin who introduced this shot at the 2001 Cape Town Test. In fact, the mother of all upper cuts has come off Sachin’s bat — off Akhtar in 2003 WC.
Victories: In Tests, 20 of his hundreds have come in winning cause and, in ODIs, 33 of his tons are in winning cause.
World Cups: Holds record, with Javed Miandad, of playing in most number of editions — six.
Xaviers: The school against which Sachin & Vinod Kambli shared a record partnership of 664 runs while playing in Harris Shield.
Yorkshire: The only English county for which he has played. He was the club’s first overseas signing.
Zillions: He gets 76 crore per year for promoting 17 brands.