Sachin Tendulkar turns 53
24th April is no less than a festival and a holy day in Indian cricket. After all, the God of Cricket Sachin Tendulkar celebrates his birthday on 24th April. There is hardly anything left to be told about Sachin, who won the hearts of not only India but cricket lovers all over the world in his 24-year long international career. Over the years, everyone has read, heard, seen and written a lot about him. Still, there is something that comes out. Like the son of a biscuit maker had become a cause of trouble for Sachin.
Sachin Tendulkar made his debut in international cricket with the Test series during his Pakistan tour in November 1989. At that time he was only 16 years and about 7 months old. Exactly 24 years later, he announced his retirement with the Test series against West Indies in November 2023 at his home ground Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. During these 24 years, wherever Sachin stepped on the field with his bat, he scored runs and centuries.
In his long career, Sachin Tendulkar batted in about 800 innings and maintained dominance on most of the occasions. Still, there were some bowlers who troubled the ‘Master Blaster’ on some occasions. One of them was the biscuit maker’s son, in whose spin Sachin got trapped many times. This spinner was none other than the great Sri Lankan bowler Muttiah Muralitharan.
Muralitharan’s father, who took the highest number of 800 wickets in Test cricket, had a biscuit making business in Sri Lanka, which was very successful. Like his father’s business, son Muralitharan also achieved success in his work i.e. off-spin bowling and the biggest achievement in this was the wicket of Sachin. Sachin and Murali faced each other in 66 matches in international cricket and in this the Sri Lankan spinner dismissed the Indian legend 13 times.
