Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (Marathi: सचिन रमेश तेंडुलकर) (born April 24, 1973 in Bombay, Maharashtra, India) is an Indian cricketer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. In 2002, Wisden rated him as the second greatest Test batsman after Sir Donald Bradman, and the second greatest One-day international batsman behind Sir Vivian Richards. In 2003, this list was revised where Tendulkar was ranked No. 1 and Richards at No. 2.
He holds several highly regarded batting records and is the leading scorer of centuries in both Test cricket and one-day internationals. He is one of the three batsmen to surpass 11,000 runs in Test cricket, and the first Indian to do so. He is the most prolific run scorer in ODIs by a margin of over 4000 runs and has scored the most runs in international cricket as a whole. He crossed 16,000 runs in ODIs on February 5, 2008 while playing against Sri Lanka in Brisbane, Australia. Affectionately called 'The Little Master' or 'The Master Blaster', Tendulkar made his first-class debut for the Mumbai cricket team aged 14 and scored a century on debut. He made his international test debut in 1989 against Pakistan in Karachi at age 16.
He is the only cricketer to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honour and the only cricketer and one of the first sportsmen (along with Vishwanathan Anand) to receive the Padma Vibhushan (2008), the second highest civilian honour of India. He is the most sponsored player in world cricket and has a huge fan following even amongst foreign audiences. Tendulkar has made numerous commercial ventures including opening a chain of restaurants in India.
