100 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT SACHIN:

The century that the whole of India was awaiting finally arrived in Mirpur on March 16, 2012. We celebrate the occasion by presenting a century of facts about Sachin Tendulkar.

1 Sachin's father, Ramesh Tendulkar, was a professor of Marathi language and literature in Mumbai, and also a Marathi poet.

2 Ramesh Tendulkar named his son after his favourite music director, Sachin Dev Burman.

3 Sachin attended Sharadashram Vidyamandir where he was coached by the legendary Ramakant Achrekar whose other wards included Balwinder Sandhu, Vinod Kambli, Ajit Agarkar, Praveen Amre, Paras Mhambrey, Chandrakant Pandit and Sameer Dighe.

4 Achrekar took his pupils through their paces at Shivaji Park in Dadar. Sachin revealed that a 'late cut' (slap) from Achrekar for skipping a match changed his life by making him practice harder and put in more hours into his game.

5 During his school days Sachin visited the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai to train as a fast bowler. It did not take long for Dennis Lillee to advise him that he would be better off focusing on his batting.

6 At the age of 14, Sachin was a ball boy for the match between India and Zimbabwe at the Wankhede Stadium during the 1987 World Cup.

7 Sachin fielded for Pakistan as a substitute in an exhibition match between Pakistan XI and Cricket Club of India Golden Jubilee XI at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai in 1987-88.

8 In the semi-finals of the Harris Shield in 1988, Sachin was involved in an unbroken 664-run partnership with friend and team mate Vinod Kambli against St Xavier's High School at Azad Maidan. Sachin made 326 not out while Kambli made 349 not out.

9 Sachin went on to make another triple hundred - 346 - in the final. He averaged over a thousand runs in the tournament that year!

10 On 11 December 1988, aged 15 years and 232 days, Sachin scored 100 not out for Bombay against Gujarat, making him the youngest Indian to score a century on first-class debut. He is the only player to score centuries on debut in the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy.

11 Sachin played his first Test match against Pakistan in Karachi in 1989 aged just 16 - he is the fifth youngest player in Test history. He made 15 runs before being bowled by Waqar Younis, who also made his debut in that match. In all, he scored 215 runs at an average of 35.83 in the Test series. 12 In the final Test in Sialkot, he was hit on the nose by a Waqar bouncer, but declined medical assistance and continued to bat even as blood gushed from the wound.

13 In an exhibition game in Peshawar during that tour, Sachin made 53 runs off 18 balls, including an over in which he scored 28 runs off Abdul Qadir, hitting him for 6, 4, 0, 6, 6 & 6.

14 Sachin was dismissed without scoring a run in the first two One Day Internationals he played - the first in Pakistan and the second in New Zealand.

15 When he was 14, former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar gave him a pair of his own ultra light pads. 'It was the greatest source of encouragement for me,' Tendulkar later said. When he became the second youngest cricketer - at 17 years and 107 days - to score a Test century with an unbeaten 119 against England at Old Trafford in 1990, he was wearing Gavaskar's pads.

16 When Sachin made his legendary 114 in Perth in the 1991-92 series, Merv Hughes had the foresight to tell Allan Border, 'This little prick's going to get more runs than you, AB.

17 Sachin played a solitary season of county cricket in 1992 when he became Yorkshire's first ever overseas player. In 16 first class matches for the county, he made 1070 runs at an average of 46.52 with one century. He's also played club cricket in England for Lashings.

18 Sachin holds the record for the most Test centuries as a teenager - five.

19 Sachin was the first batsman to be given out by the third umpire after being run out by Jonty Rhodes in a Test against South Africa at Durban during the 1992-93 series.

20 In the 1993 Hero Cup final, South Africa needed just six runs from the final over of the match. Sachin was handed the ball by skipper Mohd Azharuddin and conceded just three runs as India romped home.

21 On the day of the Holi festival in 1994, Sachin was told to open the batting against New Zealand at Auckland. It was a career-defining moment. He went on to make a colourful 82 runs off 49 balls.

22 He scored his first ODI century in September 1994 against Australia in Sri Lanka at Colombo. It had taken him 79 ODIs to reach three figures and open the flood gates.

23 In 1995, Sachin married Anjali, a pediatrician and daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta and British social worker Annabel Mehta.

24 He was chosen as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1997.

25 After losing the Chennai Test to India in 1997, Australian captain Mark Taylor said, 'We did not lose to a team called India. We lost to a man called Sachin. 26 He was the first cricketer to win the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna - for the year 1997-98. MS Dhoni would emulate him by winning the award ten years later.

27 During the Australian tour of India in 1998, Matthew Hayden said 'I have seen God. He bats at no. 4 in India in Tests.

28 1998 was truly Sachin's annus mirabilis. He scored the most ODI runs by any batsman in a calendar year - 1,894 - and for good measure the most ODI centuries by any batsman in a calendar year - 9. In 34 ODIs during the year he had a strike rate of over 100 - 102.15 to be precise.

29 The successive centuries in Sharjah in 1998 when he tore apart an Aussie attack that included a demoralised Shane Warne are part of Indian cricket folklore. Warne was so shell-shocked that he admitted he would go to bed with nightmares of Sachin hitting him for a six.

30 Sachin's fastest international century came off just 71 balls in an ODI against Zimbabwe at Sharjah in 1998. He finished on an unbeaten 124 which included 12 fours and 6 sixes. India won the game by 10 wickets with fellow opener Sourav Ganguly remaining unbeaten on 63.

31 Sachin has opened the innings only once in Tests against New Zealand in Ahmedabad in 1999 when he was captain. India was seeking quick runs in the second innings before a declaration. He was bowled by Chris Cairns for 15.

32 Sachin and Rahul Dravid hold the world record for the highest partnership in ODI matches when they scored 331 runs against New Zealand in 1999 (Sachin 186 , Dravid 153). In the course of that knock, Sachin smashed 24 runs off an over by Chris Drum.

33 Sachin has rated Mumbai's victory over Tamil Nadu in the semi-final of the Ranji Trophy at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in the 1999-2000 season as his most memorable moment in the tournament. Sachin made his highest score in the Ranji Trophy - an unbeaten 233 off just 234 balls - to help Mumbai gain the vital first innings lead in the company of the No.11 batsman.

34 According to Sachin, he has only sledged once. The victim was Glenn McGrath during the quarter final of the ICC knockout tournament in Kenya in 2000. “The first thing I said was ‘Today I will hit you out of the ground’. He got really angry and sprayed the ball around. This was exactly what we wanted.” India won by 20 runs.

35 Sachin was given a suspended ban of one game by match referee Mike Denness for alleged ball tampering in South Africa in 2001 after television cameras picked up images that suggested Tendulkar may have been involved in cleaning the seam of the cricket ball.

36 Although Sachin failed with the bat in the legendary Kolkata Test against Australia in 2001, he was an able foil to Harbhajan Singh with the ball, grabbing 3/31 in the second innings. His three victims - Hayden, Gilchrist and Warne - were all lbw. 37 Sachin has been stumped in Tests only once, by James Foster off Ashley Giles, in Bangalore in 2001. He was on 90 at the time.

38 Sachin was gifted a Ferrari 360 Modena by Michael Schumacher on behalf of Fiat in 2002 after passing Bradman's tally of 29 Test centuries. The government's decision to waive duty on the car attracted flak. Sachin went on to sell the car to a businessman from Surat in 2011.

39 Sachin has made 14 ducks in Tests and 20 in ODIs. In the 2002 Test series in the West Indies, after making 79 and 117 in the first two Tests, he made thee ducks in his next four innings, with scores of 0, 0, 8 and 0.

40 ‘Tujhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?' Wasim Akram asked Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin during their clash in the 2003 World Cup. Sachin went on to make 98 to help India beat their arch rival for the fourth successive time in the World Cup.

41 Sachin's highest score in Tests (and in first class cricket) is 248 not out against Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2004/05.

42 Sachin averaged 284 in that two Test series - the highest in his career.

43 He has played only one T20 International vs South Africa at Johannesburg in 2006. He was bowled by Charl Langeveldt for 10 though India eventually won by 6 wickets. He had earlier taken the wicket of Justin Kemp.

44 He was out three times for 99 in ODIs within the space of five months in 2007.

45 Shane Warne's countdown in The Times in 2007 of the greatest cricketers was topped by Sachin, edging out Brian Lara, who finished second. Curtly Ambrose, Allan Border and Glenn McGrath were the others in the top five.

46 After Rahul Dravid's resignation as Test captain in 2007, Sachin was offered the job but he declined, saying 'I don't feel right about it at the moment,' MS Dhoni, who was already the ODI and T20 captain, was subsequently handed the Test job as well.

47 His worst performance in a series of two or more Tests was against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka in 2008. He made just 95 runs in three Tests at an average of 15.83. Sri Lanka won the series 2-1.

48 Sachin broke Brian Lara's record for the most runs in Tests in Mohali against Australia in 2008 when he steered Peter Siddle to third man for three runs. During that innings Sachin also became the first player to cross the 12,000- run mark.

49 Sachin is the first Indian sportsperson to enter Madame Tussaud's as a waxwork, with a life-size wax statue of the master blaster being unveiled in 2009 to coincide with his 36th birthday.

50 His highest overseas score in ODIs is an unbeaten 163 against New Zealand in Christchurch in 2009. He could have got more but had to retire hurt with five overs remaining. 51 Sachin became the first man to score a double century (200 ) in an ODI against South Africa in Gwalior in 2010. He reached the landmark with a single off Charl Langeveldt from the third ball of the 50th over. The double ton came off just 147 balls with 25 fours and three sixes.

52 It was a world record until Virender Sehwag raced past it in December 2011. Sachin however still holds the world record, jointly with Sehwag, for most boundaries in an ODI - 25.

53 In September 2010 Sachin was made a Honorary Group Captain by the Indian Air Force.

54 His most successful year in Tests in terms of runs scored was 2010 when he collected a massive 1562 runs - the fourth highest in a calendar year - at an average of 78.1. In terms of batting average, his most successful year was 2004, when he averaged 91.5 in ten Tests.

55 Sachin's son Arjun played in the Harris Shield in 2011 for Dhirubhai Ambani School and took a stunning 8/22 with the new ball on debut.

56 In the 2011 IPL, Sachin reached his maiden Twenty20 hundred for Mumbai Indians against Kochi Tuskers Kerala. He slammed 100 not out off just 66 balls. In the previous season in 2010, he had racked up 618 runs, which remains a record for a single IPL season.

57 In September 2011, on the first day of Navaratri, Sachin moved into a plush new five storey mansion in Mumbai's Bandra locality. Astrologer Bejan Daruwalla predicted that it would be lucky for him though there has not been much evidence of that so far!

58 His 100th ton against Bangladesh in Mirpur was his joint slowest in ODIs - taking 138 balls - along with his ton against Sri Lanka at Sharjah in 2000.

59 With his 100th ton, which was his first in ODIs against Bangladesh, Sachin now has scored centuries against all the other 9 Test playing nations in both Tests and ODIs. He is only the second man after Ricky Ponting to accomplish the feat.

60 Sachin has captained India in 25 Tests, scoring seven hundreds and averaging a decent 51.35. He won his first two Tests as captain but his overall record was disappointing: won 4, lost 9, and drew 12. His last five Tests as captain all ended in defeats.

61 He has also captained India in 73 ODIs, winning only 23 of them. Mohd Azharuddin was credited with saying 'Nahin jeetega! Chote ki naseeb main jeet nahin hai!'

62 Of the four highest civilian awards given by the Government of India, Sachin has been awarded the Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan. He is the only cricketer to get the Padma Vibhushan. The Bharat Ratna is likely to follow sooner rather than later after the Government amended the criteria to make sportspersons eligible. 63 Sachin has opened two restaurants: Tendulkar's (Colaba, Mumbai) and Sachin's (Mulund, Mumbai) and Bangalore. Sachin owns these restaurants in partnership with Sanjay Narang of Mars Restaurants.

64 Sachin has taken 45 wickets in Test cricket - his first victim was Merv Hughes at Sydney in the 1991/92 series.

65 He is the eleventh highest wicket taker for India in ODIs with 154 wickets including two five wicket hauls to his credit.

66 His bunny in ODIs was Inzamam-ul-Haq who he dismissed 7 times. He also had the satisfaction of dismissing Brian Lara four times.

67 When Sir Donald Bradman chose his dream cricket XI shortly before his death, Sachin was chosen to bat at No.4 - one spot behind Sir Donald himself.

68 As the Don once said, '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...his compactness, technique, stroke production... it all seemed to gel!'

69 Sachin went to visit the Don at his home in Adelaide on his 90th birthday, along with Shane Warne. Sachin revealed later that the Don had an impish sense of humor. 'We were talking about averages and I said, 'Sir Don, if you were playing today, what would you have averaged?' And he said, '70 – probably.' I asked, 'Why 70 and not your actual average of 99?' Bradman said, 'Come on, an average of 70 is not bad for a 90-year-old man.''

70 He has brought up his century with a six four times in Tests - equaling a record set by Ken Barrington.

71 Sachin has been dismissed 27 times in the 90s in international cricket - 10 times in Tests and 17 times in ODIs - both world records.

72 The bowler who has dismissed him the most in Tests is Muttiah Muralitharan (8 times) followed closely by James Anderson (7).

73 In ODIs, three bowlers have dismissed him the maximum times - 9 - Chaminda Vaas, Brett Lee and Shaun Pollock.

74 The lowest position Sachin has batted in Tests is No.7 - on four occasions, the last of which came in 1991. His highest at No.7 was 41 against Pakistan at Lahore in his debut series.

75 Sachin has said that the bowler who gave him the toughest time was the late Hansie Cronje who dismissed him five times in Tests. In Sachin's words, 'I once told my partner 'Will you please take Hansie for me? I don't mind playing Allan Donald'. 76 Sachin's favourite hunting ground in Tests is the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai where he has made 876 runs at an average of 87.6 with five centuries. He has a higher average on several other grounds though - the highest being at Dhaka (266).

77 In ODIs, Sachin has scored over a thousand runs on two grounds, neither in India - the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, where he's scored 1096 runs and the Sharjah Cricket Stadium where he's piled up a massive 1778 runs.

78 Of his 51 Test centuries, 20 have resulted in victories, including at least one against each of the other nine Test playing countries. Of his 49 ODI tons, 33 have resulted in victories. Overall, 53 of his 100 international tons have resulted in wins.

79 Of his 100 tons, 42 have come on Indian soil and 58 overseas. The country in which he has scored the most tons after India is Sri Lanka with 10.

80 His favourite opponent when it comes to reaching three figures is Australia against whom he has made exactly one fifth of his 100 tons. The Sri Lankan are next with 17 tons scored off them.

81 The captain under whom he scored the most tons is Mohd Azharuddin (33) followed by Sourav Ganguly (24) and MS Dhoni (19). Only 13 of his tons came under his own captaincy.

82 Sachin has hit 67 sixes in Tests which puts him joint 12th in the all time list and second among Indians behind only Virender Sehwag who has 88.

83 In ODIs, Sachin is numero uno among Indians with 194 sixes and third overall behind Shahid Afridi and Sanath Jayasuriya.

84 Sachin has won 14 Man of the Match awards in Tests - an Indian record.

85 Sachin has also won 62 Man of the Match awards in ODIs - a world record - with the last one coming in the 2011 World Cup semi-final against Pakistan in Mohali.

86 The biggest influence on his career is his older brother, Ajit. 'If there is any problem in my batting I always speak to him. Ajit is absolutely the person I trust most when it comes to batting,' said Sachin.

87 Sachin wrote a letter to the ICC seeking a change in the format of ODIs from two innings of 50 overs to four innings of 25 overs each but the ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat rejected the idea.

88 By his own admission, Sachin has never played with a runner in his entire life, even in school cricket. 'Only I know where the ball is going and how hard, when I hit the ball, something my runner will never know about,' he said.

89 Of his 51 Test tons, 29 have come away. Only 12 of his 49 ODI tons have come away though. 90 Sachin's boyhood idol was John McEnroe although they were poles apart temperamentally. 'I was the only one supporting John McEnroe - everyone used to call me “Mac” because I styled myself on him. I made my father buy me the same headbands and sweatbands and even grew my hair long. You wouldn’t believe the pictures of me from that time,' said Sachin later.

91 Sachin is superstitious like most other cricketers – he always puts on his left pad before his right.

92 He has unfortunately never scored a century at the Mecca of cricket - Lord's - in Tests or ODIs. In five Tests and three ODIs there, his highest score is just 37.

93 Despite not being a specialist slip fielder, Sachin has managed to take 113 catches in Tests, the third highest for India after Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.

94 Sachin has hit six double centuries in Tests - three at home and three abroad. It could have been seven but Rahul Dravid infamously declared the innings at Multan in 2004 when Sachin was unbeaten on 194.

95 Sachin suffered the mortifying experience of being booed by his home crowd in Mumbai after being dismissed for 1 off 21 balls against England in a Test in 2006 at the Wankhede Stadium.

96 Although Sachin never completed his schooling, he has received honorary doctorates from the University of Mysore and Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences.

97 Sachin is the most followed cricketer on Twitter with over two million followers.

98 Eleven bowlers have claimed Sachin as their first Test wicket: Hansie Cronje, Ujesh Ranchod, Ruwan Kalpage, Mark Ealham, Neil Johnson, Jacob Oram, Monty Panesar, Cameron White, Peter Siddle, Peter George and Andy McKay. Nine others have done so in ODIs.

99 Sachin also holds the record for most international fifties (not including centuries) in both Tests and ODIs. He's hit 65 fifties in Tests and 95 fifties in ODIs - a total of 160.

100 Sachin is 29 centuries ahead of his nearest rival, Ricky Ponting, who has 71.

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