2. About the writer - Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is an Indian Cricketer born on \(24\) April \(1973\) in Bombay, Maharashtra. He is fondly hailed as the 'God of Cricket' in India. He is also called as Little Blaster or Master Blaster, as he is easily one of the best batsmen in cricket history. His achievements are countless as he has played \(664\) international cricket matches in total, scoring \(34,357\) runs.

 

He started playing cricket from a very young age. He was initially interested in tennis as he was fascinated by the tennis legend John McEnroe. He was a mischievous boy as a child and this made his brother Ajit enrol him into a cricket academy run by a famous and talented coach named Ramakant Achrekar. This proved as a huge turning point in Sachin's life as his career kickstarted from this small cricket club in Dadar, Sivaji Park in Mumbai. He started by playing club crickets against various states. He was also initially focussing on bowling when the Australian pacer Dennis Lillee advised him to practice his batting techniques. He was rejected from getting the Bombay Cricket Association's "Best junior cricket award". But this led to him being introduced to one of the legendary Indian cricketers Sunil Gavaskar, as gave him a pair of his own ultra light pads and consoled him to not get disheartened. Sachin was only \(14\) years old when this happened.

 

In the World cup of \(1987\), Sachin served as a ball boy when England played against India in the semifinals. In the same year, he played in the Ranji trophy but did not get selected in the final eleven. But he scored a century not out for Bombay, playing against Gujarat. After playing a lot of State cricket and performing well in the Ranji trophies of 88 and 89, Sachin began playing for International cricket. Today, he remains as the only batsman who has scored one hundred international centuries, to score a double century in one day cricket. He is also in the ICC cricket hall of fame.

 

'Learning the Game' is an excerpt from his autobiography 'Playing it my Way'. This particular excerpt talks about his early experiences with cricket and his experiences with his coach Achrekar.