Sachin Tendulkar was born Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar on 24th April, 1973 into a middle class family of Rajapur Saraswat Brahmins in Mumbai. Named after his family’s favourite musician, Sachin Dev Burman, Sachin has three siblings; older brother Ajit (who encouraged him to play cricket) and younger brother Nitin and sister Savitai. In 1995, Sachin married Anjali, the paediatrician daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta. They have two children, Sara who was born on 12th October, 1997 and Arjun who was born on 23rd September, 1999. Sachin was educated at Sharadashram Vidyamandir School, where he began his cricketing career under the influence of mentor and coach Ramakant Achrekar. In 1988, whilst still at school, Sachin was involved in a 600-run partnership with friend and team-mate Vinod Kambli in which his share was 320 runs.

Sachin made his first-class debut at the age of 15 years and 232 days, scoring 100 not out for Mumbai, which makes him the youngest cricketer to score a century on his first-class debut. Sachin has been a member of the Indian cricket team since 1989, making his debut in Karachi, against Pakistan, at the age of 16; he was bowled by Waqar Younis, who was also making his debut, for only 15 runs. He went on to score his maiden Test 50 a few days later at Faisalabad. His one-day career did not start off as smoothly as his Test career – he was dismissed for 0, again by Waqar Younis. It was the following year at Old Trafford whilst touring England that Sachin made his maiden Test century. The 1991-1992 season saw his first tour to Australia during which he encountered his first of many battles against Australian spinner Shane Warne, scoring a magnificent 148 not out in Sydney followed up by another 100 in Perth.

Sachin was probably at his peak from 1994-1999. It was in Auckland, New Zealand in 1994 that he opened the batting for the first time, going on to score 82 runs off 49 balls and in September that year he scored his maiden one-day international century against Australia in Sri Lanka. Surprisingly, it had taken him 79 one-day internationals to score his first century. Sachin’s rise to the top continued when he was the leading run scorer at the 1996 World Cup with 523 runs including two centuries and topping the batting averages. Following this he toured Australia, scoring three centuries which were characterised by a premeditated plan to charge down the pitch to Warne. It was in 1999 when Pakistan toured India that Sachin got a chronic back problem causing India to lose the vital match at Chepauk. Worse followed during the 1999 World Cup when his father died, forcing Sachin to fly back home to attend to family matters and miss the match against Zimbabwe. He returned in time for the match against Kenya at Bristol, England, when he scored 140 off 101 balls and dedicated it to his father.

It was Sachin’s great cricketing mind that saw him appointed captain of India in 1996-1997 on the tour to Pakistan. This made him the second youngest captain in the history of Indian cricket (the youngest being M.A.K. Pataudi who was appointed captain at the age of 21). Sachin swiftly justified the faith put in him by leading India to series victories against South Africa and Australia, and in between those Test series victories claiming the Titan Cup, a triangular tournament featuring India, Australia and South Africa. But after this the performances declined. He was not given the squad he wanted and India started losing under an unhappy captain. Sachin was made the scapegoat, being dropped as captain in 2000 and replaced by Sourav Ganguly despite scoring more than 1,000 runs in all forms of the game in a calendar year. India then reached the 2003 World Cup final, thanks in large part to Sachin scoring 673 runs in only 11 matches. Although India went on to lose the match, Sachin won the Man of the Series award. The drawn series of 2003-2004 against Australia saw Sachin score a double century in Sydney, but in it was during this match that tennis elbow took its toll, causing him to miss the next two Tests against Australia.

Wisden (the world-famous cricketing magazine and yearbook) named Sachin one of the cricketers of the year in 1997 for scoring 1,000 test runs in a calendar year. He repeated the feat in 1999, 2001 and 2002. In all, he has scored 1,000 runs in a calendar year on a record six occasions: 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2003 a record. In 1998 Sachin scored 1,894 runs in one-day matches which was a record for any batsman in a calendar year.

Even though he is no longer captain, Sachin remains an important part of the ‘think tank’ and is often seen discussing strategies with the captain and other senior players. For example, Rahul Dravid publicly acknowledged that it was Sachin who suggested the successful move of promoting Irfan Pathan up the order to number 3. In 2005 against Sri Lanka Sachin broke the record for scoring the most number of centuries, taking his tally to 35. But later in 2005 and the early part of 2006 he suffered from a shoulder injury which required an operation, causing him to miss the West Indies tour. However he agreed to play five games for the Lashings World XI in order to get fit. Sachin's first Twenty20 Match was against Pakistan during which he hit 50 off only 21 balls. On the second day of the Nottingham Test against England in 2007 Sachin became only the third player ever to score more than 11,000 Test runs.

Sachin is the most capped Indian player of all time and sits fourth on the world list of most capped players, just beneath Steve Waugh, Allan Border and Shane Warne. Through his career Sachin has scored 41 centuries and 83 fifties in one-day games and 37 centuries and 45 fifties in Test matches. In one-day matches he has won 55 man of the match awards and 14 man of the series awards, both records. With Ganguly he holds the world record for the best opening partnership: they have put on 6,271 runs in 128 matches, which include 20 century partnerships (another record) and 21 fifty-run partnerships. During his early days as a schoolboy cricketer he went to the MRF pace academy to train as a pace bowler but was sent back home. Legendary Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee told the young Tendulkar: ‘Just focus on your batting’. Whilst not a regular bowler Sachin has taken 41 wickets in 137 Tests and 155 wickets in 388 one-day internationals. He can bowl medium-pace, leg spin and off-spin.

Outside cricket, Sachin has interests in a number of business ventures - he owns two restaurants in Mumbai, a joint  venture with Fortune Group and Manipal Group to launch healthcare and sports fitness products under the brand name S Drive and Sach and a series of comic books which is due to be published by Virgin Comics featuring him as a superhero . Sachin is a charitable person who through Apnalaya, a non-government organisation, sponsors over 200 children.

Nicknamed the ‘Little Master’ or ‘Master Blaster’, Sachin was rated by Wisden as the second best cricketer of all time in both forms of the game (behind Sir Don Bradnam in Tests and Sir Viv Richards in one-day games). A living cricket legend, over 18 years of international cricket Sachin holds multiple records and is revered throughout the world as one of the all-time greats.

In the recent Test Series between India and Australia, which finished in November 2008, Sachin became the leading Test run scorer of all time. Surpassing Brian Lara’s previous record of 11,953, Sachin became the first man to pass the 12,000 mark, stretching the record out to an incredible 12,773. He’ll be aiming to extend that record still further during the current two-match Test Series against England.

At the end of 2008, India beat England 5-0 in a one-day series, though Sachin only played in two of the games, but his unbeaten 103 in the First Test helped India to an unlikely victory and when the Second Test petered out into a draw, India had claimed the short series, 1-0.

2009 started slowly for Sachin, who played little part in his country’s 4-1 ODI series win over Sri Lanka, but on the Tour to New Zealand in March he scored an incredible 163 from 133 balls before retiring hurt in the third ODI, and he followed this up with a sparkling 160 in the First Test to set India on their way to 10-wicket win. India won both the ODI series (3-1) and the Test series (1-0), while Sachin personally has taken his Test run record out to 12,773, including a record 42 centuries, and has moved into second place on the all-time Test appearances list behind only Steve Waugh.

Australia returned for a seven-match ODI series in India in October, and Tendulkar made 14, 4, 32 and 40 in the first four games. In the fifth match, with the series tied at 2–2, Australia amassed 350/4 in 50 overs. Tendulkar made his 45th ODI hundred, a 175 off 141 balls. Just when it seemed that he would steer India to the large victory target, he paddle-scooped debutant bowler Clint McKay straight to short fine leg, with India needing 19 from 18 balls with four wickets left. The Indian tail collapsed, and they lost by 3 runs, being all out for 347. During this match, Tendulkar also became the first player to reach 17,000 ODI runs, and achieved his personal best against Australia, as well as the third highest score in a defeat.

In the ODIs against Sri Lanka in 2009–10, Tendulkar scored 69, 43, 96 not out and 8, as India won 3–1.In the Test Series, he scored a 100 no out in the first test, which was drawn, and 40 in the second and 53 in the third test as India clinched innings victory in both tests. India won the series 2–0.

Sachin rested himself for the ODI tri-series in Bangladesh in 2010. In the Tests against Bangladesh, he made 105 not out and 16 in the first test, and 143 in the second. India won 2–0.

In the 2-Test Series against South Africa, Tendulkar made seven and 100 in the first test and 106 in the first innings of the second test. In the course of the second 100 (his 47th Test Hundred) he achieved several landmarks, in that he had scored four hundreds in his last four matches and that the hundred against South Africa in the first Test was the first at home against South Africa. The century was also his hundredth score over 50 in International Test cricket, moving him to 92 international hundreds (Tests and ODIs combined). In the second match of the subsequent ODI series, Tendulkar scored 200 not out and become the first person to score a double century in ODI cricket.

From February to April, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka hosted the 2011 World Cup. Amassing 482 runs at an average of 53.55 including two centuries, Tendulkar was India's lead run-scorer for the tournament; only Tillakaratne Dilshan of Sri Lanka scored more runs in the 2011 tournament. India defeated Sri Lanka in the final. Shortly after the victory, Tendulkar commented that "Winning the World Cup is the proudest moment of my life. ... I couldn't control my tears of joy."

In the 2011 IPL, against Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Tendulkar scored his maiden Twenty20 hundred. He scored 100 not out off 66 balls. In 51 matches in the IPL Tendulkar has scored 1,723 runs, making him the second-highest run-scorer in the competition's history.