T is for a few lesser-known facts about the little master Sachin (T)endulkar – #BlogchatterAtoZ #AtoZChallenge 2019
Image Courtesy: Wikipedia.org
I don’t think there would be too many people who are not familiar with the name of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. I have decided that for the letter ‘S’, I will write about Sachin Tendulkar. But unlike other posts, I decided that I will give a slight twist to the nature of this post. The reason is that if I were to give you an exhaustive list of Sachin’s achievements in his career as a cricketer, the records he has broken, to say nothing of his technical expertise as a batsman then this post will end up becoming interminably long. What I am saying is that a single post is not enough to bring out the true greatness of Sachin’s life.
Keeping this in mind, in this post, I have decided to just list out some little facts about Tendulkar which most people are not likely to be aware of. Some of these facts may make you smile while others may make you raise your eyebrows and some might even make you gasp in astonishment. But I assure you, you will find all these tidbits of information about the master-blaster extremely interesting. I am listing below a set of thirty facts about Sachin that I have compiled from the internet. So here we go.
1. Tendulkar is the first cricketer to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha. He was nominated on an Indian National Congress ticket.
1. Tendulkar is the first cricketer to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha. He was nominated on an Indian National Congress ticket.
2. As a young man, Sachin wanted to be a fast bowler and he approached the MRF pace foundation but the coach at MRF, Dennis Lillee advised Sachin to concentrate on batting instead.
3. At the age of 14, Sachin once acted as a ball boy in a match between India and New Zealand at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.
4. The first car that Sachin purchased was a Maruti-800.
5. Sachin is sometimes irritated by the fact that he cannot walk freely on the streets of Mumbai, which is the price he has had to pay for the name and fame he has earned. He is known to sometimes take a drive around Mumbai late in the night after most of the city has gone to sleep.
6. You may not be able to believe it when you look at Sachin now, but at school, he was a big bully. Sounds impossible, doesn’t it?
7. Sachin once mentioned in an interview that he loves ‘Vada-Pao’.
8. There is one thing I have in common with Sachin Tendulkar. He is a huge fan of John Mcenroe the tennis genius of the seventies. Like Sachin, I too am a fan of Mcenroe. In fact, as a boy, Sachin loved Mcenroe so much that he imitated Mcenroe by growing his hair long and tying a band around it just like Mcenroe. Well, I did not go that far, though now that I come to think of it, it would not have been such a bad idea.
9. Most people are fans of Rahul Dev Burman these days. But few people from this generation have heard of Sachin Dev Burman who was Rahul’s father and who is also one of my all-time favourites. Who can forget the lilting number ‘Khilte Hain Gul Yahan’ from the movie Sharmilee which oozes melody? Are you are wondering why I am speaking so much about SD Burman? The reason is Sachin Tendulkar was named after Sachin Dev Burman by his father who was a huge fan of SD Burman.
10. Sachin’s nickname for Sourav Ganguly is ‘Babu Moshai’ while Sourav calls him ‘Chhota Babu’.
11. The nanny who took care of Sachin has been universally known as ‘Sanchchu Bai’.
12. Sachin once made his mother look for a ‘frog Bhaji’ recipe!
13. As a child, Sachin was very naughty and he used to go fishing for tadpoles and guppy fishes in the stream that ran through the compound of Sahitya Sahawas at Bandra East.
14. Sachin is the only cricketer to be awarded Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Shri and Arjuna Award by the Indian Government.
15. In 1995, Sachin went to watch the movie Roja in disguise. He donned a beard and dark glasses and went to the theatre. Unfortunately, the beard fell off and people recognised him and you can imagine what must have ensued.
16. Sachin’s first brand endorsement was the health drink Boost. He was seen with Kapil Dev in the Boost ads of the nineties.
17. Sachin uses a very heavy bat that weighs 1.51 Kg. The only person who used a heavier bat is South Africa’s Lance Klusener.
18. In his debut test against Pakistan Sachin batted with pads gifted to him by Sunil Gavaskar.
19. Sachin is a fan of Kishore Kumar and the rock group Dire Straits.
20. In 2002, when Sachin equalled Sir Don Bradman’s record of 29 centuries, Michael Schumacher presented him a Ferrari on behalf of the carmaker Fiat. Sachin later sold this Ferrari in 2011 to a Surat Builder, Jayesh Desai.
21. The first advertisement in which Sachin featured was for Band-Aid.
22. During his junior days, Sachin used to sleep with his Cricket gear.
23. Sachin’s coach Ramakant Achrekar used to award a one rupee coin to any bowler who could dismiss Sachin during coaching. But if Sachin managed to bat through a session without getting out, the coin would belong to Sachin. The thirteen coins he won this way are among Sachin’s favourite possessions today.
24. Sachin took as many as 79 ODI matches to score his first ODI century.
25. Sachin was conferred the Bharat Ratna on 4, February 2016, thereby becoming the youngest recipient of the award.
26. Sachin was awarded a bottle of champagne as the man of the match prize for his maiden ODI ton. Since he was underage he declined to drink the champagne. Sachin kept that bottle intact and opened it on his daughter’s first birthday.
27. Sachin is ambidextrous, meaning he can work with both hands. He bowls and bats with his right hand but writes and eats with his left hand.
28. In his long career of 24 years, Sachin has been out stumped only once in a test match. This happened in a match played in Bengaluru against England. The bowler was Ashley Giles.
29. Sachin met his wife Anjali who is a paediatrician when he was just 17 years old. She is six years his senior.
30. Sachin Tendulkar once played as a substitute fielder for Pakistan during a one-day practice match against India at the Brabourne Stadium in 1988.
I hope these interesting facts about Sachin Tendulkar held you spellbound. I will be back with another sportsperson tomorrow.
Tags – #BlogchatterAtoZ 2019 #AtoZChallenge 2019
Tags – #BlogchatterAtoZ 2019 #AtoZChallenge 2019
Thanks for sharing a side of Sachin we haven't read about. I was unaware that he met Anjali when he was 17. A very interesting post, Jai!
That's a great post on Tendulkar, I was also thinking you will cover him in S but as his jersey/ t shirt always had tendulkar written on it so T is what Tendulkar is known for. glad to read so many unknown facts about him. Frog bhaji and only once he was stumped were surprise.
This series would have stayed incomplete without today's post. So many known facets about this God gifted cricketer. He defines the word Gentleman's game in the dict and history of cricket.
Regarding point no 5, I would like to add an anecdote :Once ST went fora drive late in the night and he saw some restaurant workers were playing cricket after downing the hotel's shutters. ST get down and plays with them. The great batsman made their day er night.
Vada pao is the preferred street-site food of 90% of Mumbaikars.
point no 17 : Sandeep Patil (too) used to play with a heavy bat(dont know how much it used to weigh) and later he was advised to switch to a lighter bat due to his shoulder pain.
your compilation of lesser known facts about ST is interesting ,Jai.
https://ideasolsi65.blogspot.com/2019/04/spleen-parts-of-body.html
One of my fav cricketer!!
God of Cricket! But i don't get why they offered hi seats in Rajyasabha. After retirement he is not impressing much. He could have done more using fame to help people.
Yes, he met his soulmate at a very early age. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Yes, I thought it would be better to cover him under T. Yes frog bhaji. I was surprised to learn about that too. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Yes, impossible to omit Tendulkar. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
I did not know about Sachin playing cricket with restaurant workers. And yes Samdeep Patil was also a hard hitter of the ball and I am not surprised he too used a heavy bat.
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Actually the RS seat is a nominated one given by the congress party but Sachin does not seem to be putting it to very good use as you say. Thanks for visiting and commenting
He was one of my favourite cricketers. I watched his documentary and it was well made. Thesefacts are also really interesting. Thanks for sharing.
I am afraid I missed the documentary. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Ohh i never knew all these details
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