It’s Sachin Tendulkar’s birthday today! Much has been written about the Master Blaster. As India’s most beloved sportsman turns 45 today, we have put together a list of things you may not know about him.
Sachin grew out his hair when he was younger and tied a band around it to copy his idol John McEnroe. He even encouraged his friends to call him McEnroe.
He was the first active cricketer to be nominated to the Upper House of the Parliament.
In October 1995, Sachin became the richest cricketer when he signed a five-year contract worth Rs 31.5 crore with World Tel.
The first car he ever owned was a Maruti 800.
The first brand Sachin Tendulkar endorsed was for the health drink Boost. He was seen alongside Kapil Dev in many of their advertisements, the first of which came out in 1990.
Sachin was a bit of a bully in school, but was known to be kind to cats and dogs. His first captain, Sunil Harshe, said that he loved to pick a fight. Every time he was introduced to someone, his first reaction was, 'Will I be able to beat him?’.
He went to watch the movie Roja in 1995, wearing a fake beard to disguise himself. It all went wrong when his glasses fell off and the crowd recognised him.
Sachin works towards the welfare of underprivileged children. He sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year through Apnalaya, a Mumbai-based NGO, associated with his mother-in-law, Annabel Mehta.
Sachin was awarded a bottle of champagne as part of his Man of the Match prize for his maiden ODI ton, but he declined to drink it as he was underage. In fact, he saved that bottle only to open it up on his daughter’s first birthday.
Sachin first visited London’s Madame Tussaud's in 1988. 20 years later, in 2008, the museum had his wax statue.
In 2016, he was conferred with India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna and also became the youngest recipient of Bharat Ratna so far. Sachin has also been conferred many other prestigious awards and honours such as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award and the Padma Shri. He is the only Indian cricketer to get all of these awards.
One Sunday evening, a young Sachin fell off a tree during his summer vacations. It infuriated his brother and mentor, Ajit, who packed him off to cricket coaching class as a punishment. The rest is history!
He was named Sachin after his family’s favourite musician, Sachin Dev Burman.
He is an avid collector of watches and perfumes.
Sachin’s love for his Ferrari is quite well-known, and he didn't even let his wife Anjali drive it. He later sold off his Ferrari in 2011.
He loves to have competitions between his cricket buddies Vinod Kambli and Salil Ankola to see who can eat more vada pavs.
He once refused to shoot a cola ad that showed him smashing cricket balls using a fly swatter. He reportedly told ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar, "That would make me greater than the game." The ad was modified: he hit the balls with a stump.
He used to love going fishing for tadpoles and guppy fishes in the stream that ran through the compound of Sahitya Sahwas, his apartment in Bandra East. Once, he even made his mother look for a frog bhaji recipe.
He is known to be a major prankster in the team. He once put a hose pipe in Sourav Ganguly's room and turned on the tap. Sourav woke up to find his gear floating! He calls Sourav 'Babu Moshai', who, in turn, calls him 'Chhota Babu’.