Master Blaster ----------((((((!!!!!!!!!!!!!*********

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar   born 24 April 1973) is a current Indian cricketer who was rated by Wisden (2002) as the second greatest Test batsman ever[1] after Sir Don Bradman. He made his international debut in 1989 and holds several batting records in both Test Cricket and ODI Cricket. A perennial crowd-favorite, he is the only Indian cricketer to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honour for his performance in 1997-1998. Many commentators and fellow players regard him as one of the greatest batsmen the game has seen.


 Awards
1994: Arjuna Award Receipient for achievements in Cricket
1997: Tendulkar was one of the five cricketers selected as Wisden Cricketer of the Year
1997/98: Sachin Tendulkar received India's highest sporting honour - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna
1999: Awarded Padma Shri - India's civilian medal of recognition


Centuries & Fifties Record:
Most centuries: 41
Only player to have over 100 innings of 50+ runs (41 Centuries and 77 Fifties)(as of 20th Mar, 2007)
Fifties: 77. Inzamam-ul-Haq (83) is the only other batsmen who have scored more Fifties. Rahul Dravid (77) is joint second with Sachin for the most number of fifties.
Most centuries vs. Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

ODI Awards:
Most Man of the Match Awards: 53 Man of the Match Awards
Most Man of the Series Awards : 13 Man of the Series Awards

Calendar Year Record:
Most ODI runs in a calendar year: 1,894 ODI runs in 1998.
Most Centuries in a calendar year: 9 ODI centuries in 1998

Criticism
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• Despite his record of scoring the most Test centuries, none of Tendulkar's innings found a place in the Wisden 100, a statistics-based list released by Wisden in 2001 of the 100 "greatest Test batting performances". Wisden stated that most of his best performances had come in draws and defeats, and so received a much lower weighting as they did not contribute to a victory.
  
• His two tenures as captain of the Indian cricket team were not particularly successful. When Sachin took over as Captain in 1996, it was with huge hopes and expectations. However, by 1997 team prospects were quite bad. Azharuddin was credited with saying "Nahin jeetega! Chote ki naseeb main jeet nahin hai!", which translates into : "He won't win ! It's not in his destiny ". During his second run, after constantly complaining that the national selectors weren't giving him the team he wanted, he resigned after a disastrous tour of Australia where India lost 0-3 in the Tests and managed to win only one of 8 ODIs. Incidentally, he was named man of the series for the Test matches.
  
• Sachin Tendulkar was also allegedly criticized by erstwhile Indian coach Greg Chappell on his attitude. As per the report, Chappell felt that Tendulkar would be more useful down the order, while the latter felt that he would be better off opening the innings which he has been doing for major portion of his career. Chappell also believed that Tendulkar's repeated failures were hurting the team's chances. In a rare show of emotion, Tendulkar hit out at the comments attributed to Chappell by pointing out that no coach has ever mentioned about his attitude being incorrect. On April 7, 2007, the Board of Control for Cricket in India issued a notice to Sachin Tendulkar asking for an explanation for his comments made to the media
  

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Personal life
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      Born to a middle class family of Rajapur Saraswat Brahmins in Bombay, now known as Mumbai. His father Ramesh Tendulkar, a Marathi novelist named him after his favourite music director Sachin Dev Burman. He was encouraged to play cricket by his elder brother, Ajit Tendulkar. He has 2 more siblings - brother Nitin Tendulkar and sister Savitai Tendulkar. Nitin's son Rohan Tendulkar born in 1990 is also a cricketer and represents Mumbai in junior cricket tournaments.

In 1995, Sachin Tendulkar married Anjali Tendulkar (born 13 feb 1971), the paediatrician daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta. They have two children, Sara (born 12 October 1997) and Arjun (born 23 September, 2000).

Tendulkar sponsors 200 under-privileged children, every year through Apnalaya, a Mumbai-based NGO associated with his mother-in-law, Annaben Mehta. He is reluctant to speak about this, or other charitable activities, choosing to preserve the sanctity of his personal life despite the overwhelming media interest in him.