Sachin : the story of the world's greatest batsman

He s a god in India and people believe luck shines in his hand . . . It is beyond chaos It is a frantic appeal by a nation to one man. Matthew Hayden on Sachin Tendulkar In the twenty years that he has been in the public eye, Sachin Tendulkar has been explosive on the cricket field and just as reticent off it. He was barely fifteen years old when he first wrote his name into record books with a stupendous 664-run partnership with his childhood friend Vinod Kambli. A few months later, he struck his first century in first-class cricket. At seventeen he became the second youngest man to make a hundred in international cricket, and after that there was no looking back. Today, Sachin is widely regarded as the world s finest Batsman, with impeccable technique, an incredible array of strokes, and maturity far beyond his years. In this biography of the hero of Indian cricket, sports writer Gulu Ezekiel mines interviews, press reports and conversations over the last two decades and more to create an accurate and sympathetic account of the man and his first passion: cricket. He tracks Sachin from his childhood when he first caught the bug of cricket, through his early performances in the Ranji Trophy and other domestic tournaments, and follows him on his meteoric rise to international stardom. With unfailing attention to detail, he reconstructs the crucial matches and events that marked Sachin s career and unravels for us the magic of the charismatic cricketer whom Wisden Cricket Monthly once dubbed bigger than Jesus . In the twelve years that he has been in the public eye, Sachin Tendulkar has been explosive on the cricket field and just as reticent off it. He was barely fifteen years old when he first wrote his name into the record books with a stupendous 664-run partnership with his childhood friend Vinod Kambli. Two year later, he struck his first century in first-class cricket. At eighteen, he became the second youngest man to make a hundred in international cricket, and after that there was no looking back. Records tumbled by the wayside as he captivated audiences first in his home city of Mumbai, then in the rest of India and all over the cricket-playing world. Today, Sachin is widely accepted as the world's finest batsman, with impeccable technique, an incredible array of strokes, and maturity far beyond his years. His teammates and friends swear by him, his fans worship him and there are few, if any, critics of his game or his temperament. In this biography of the hero of Indian cricket, sports writer Gulu Ezekiel mines interviews, press reports and conversations over the last decade to create an accurate and sympathetic account of the man and his first cricket. He tracks Sachin from his childhood when he first caught the bug of cricket, through his early performances in the Ranji Trophy and other domestic tournaments, and follows him on his meteoric rise to international stardom. With unfailing attention to detail, he reconstructs the crucial matches and events that marked Sachin's career and unravels for us the magic of the charismatic cricketer whom Wisden once dubbed 'bigger than Jesus'. The Story of the World's Greatest Batsman , the first, serious exhaustive biography of the Tendulkar career so far, brings back, like a warm autumn breeze does, the memory of the wunderkind's early exhilarating summers in international cricket...The book is akin to a documentary in prose...the book's big virtue is that it is laboriously researched and cross-referenced. For any quizzer on Mastermind India opting for "The Life and Times of Sachin Tendulkar" as their specialist subject there's good news. You just got yourself the ready reckoner that covers 1973-2002. Contents......Page 7 Preface to the Revised Edition......Page 9 Copyright Acknowledgements......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 11 Prologue: The God of lndian Cricket......Page 13 1. Bombay Boy......Page 16 2. Schoolboy Prodigy......Page 25 3. World Record......Page 36 4. A Boy Among Men......Page 41 5. Into the Cauldron of Test Cricket......Page 54 6. 12 Runs Short of Glory......Page 65 7. Hail the Boy King......Page 68 8. Home, Sweet Home......Page 79 9. On Top Down Under......Page 89 10. World Cup Debut......Page 99 11. Two Little Bits of Cricket History......Page 106 12. Success at Home and Abroad......Page 114 13. The Great Friendship......Page 121 14. The One-day Phenom......Page 128 15. The Brian and Sachin Show......Page 138 16. World Cup 1996-- and England Again......Page 150 17. Captaincy- I......Page 161 18. Defeat and Despair......Page 167 19. Confrontation......Page 180 20. Musical Chairs......Page 193 21. Desert Storm......Page 226 22. The Don and l......Page 233 23. On Top of the World......Page 239 24. Trauma......Page 247 25. Tragedy and Tears......Page 255 26. Reluctant Messiah......Page 264 27. Double-Then Trouble......Page 271 28. Debacle Down Under......Page 276 29. Stepping Down......Page 285 30. Match-fixing and the CBI......Page 294 31. 'The Greatest Series Ever'......Page 304 32. Foot Fault......Page 312 33. Year of Controversies......Page 318 34. Global Brand......Page 337 35. Man and Myth......Page 344 36. Foreign Travails......Page 349 37. The World Cup......Page 354 38. The Burden Eases......Page 357 39. Year of Contrasts......Page 360 40. Sunny Eclipsed......Page 363 41. World Cup Woes......Page 373 42. Drama Down Under and the IPL......Page 380 43. Back on Top......Page 391 44. Such a Long Journey......Page 398 Sachin Tendulkar in Figures......Page 403 Select Bibliography......Page 420 Index......Page 422 He scored his maiden first-class century on debut at 15; his first Test ton came when he was just 17. Biography of Sachin Tendulkar, b. 1973, cricket player from India