General
Mumbai mayhem
The first day of the Mumbai Test wasn't as much about two teams slugging it out as much as it was about unrestrained adoration for one man
15-Nov-2013
In the BBC website, historian Ramachandra Guha explains what Tendulkar meant for India.
Tendulkar would have been great in any age, yet he was lucky that his cricketing career coincided with the rise of satellite television, as well as with the growing importance of one-day cricket.
There is no Indian tradition of graceful retirement, says Tunku Varadarajan in the New York Times.
Full postEye of the tiger
Mid-match scrutiny
15-Nov-2013
Two of the finest batsmen of their generation, Ricky Ponting and Tendulkar shared many memorable duels. They first played against each other in an ODI in Dunedin (Ponting 62, Tendulkar 47) and went on to face off in 89 international games.
"He's undoubtedly technically the best batsman I've seen, played against, played with," said Ponting about Tendulkar recently. "Technically the best batsman I've seen, and quite easily as well."
In this photo Ponting examines Tendulkar's eye in the Delhi Test of 2008. India racked up 613 for 7 declared in the first innings (Tendulkar 68 and 47) and Australia responded with 577 (Ponting 87) in a drawn encounter. India won the four-match series 2-0.
Full post'Sachin is a part of me'
Indian playback singer Usha Uthup remembers the times she sang for Sachin
14-Nov-2013
With his precocious talent, Sachin Tendulkar turned even the most serious-minded cricket fans into voluble school kids. Indian playback singer Usha Uthup, popular for her pop and jazz songs, is a fan who has frequently sung for Tendulkar and the Indian team. She recalls the times she has met him and the songs she has sung.
Full postBatting from memory
Shadow-batting at practice
13-Nov-2013
Some of Tendulkar's team-mates have recalled the days, during India's tour to Pakistan in 1989, when he sleepwalked.
"One night I was surprised to see a dazed looking Tendulkar walking out of his hotel room and mumbling in Marathi 'maajha bat, maajha bat (my bat, my bat)'. That's when we realised that he was actually sleepwalking,'' said Navjot Sidhu recently.
In this photo, taken during the 2012 IPL, before a match in Visakhapatnam, Tendulkar is shadow-batting with his eyes closed during a practice session. He has often spoken about shutting off the noise and entering a quiet zone when he is batting.
Full postSachin's British family connection
Meet the distinguished English social worker who didn't "really know anything" about Tendulkar before he became her son-in-law
12-Nov-2013
The Telegraph's Ian Chadband meets Annabel Mehta, Tendulkar's mother-in-law.
This distinguished English social worker, who had made her life in India, knew the teenager played Test cricket and was considered a bit of a star but that was about it. "I didn't really know anything about him and, of course, I had no idea then, over 20 years ago, what was going to happen. But I mean, how could one ever know?"
How could one possibly ever know the way this coy, charming little fellow was going to be transformed into nothing short of a living national deity and how Annabel's beautiful girl Anjali would become the rock on which Sachin Tendulkar's greatness has relied for so long? He turned their lives, gloriously, upside down.
Full postMenacing in Nottingham
Scaring silly point
11-Nov-2013
If you want an action-packed shot, in photographic and batting terms, you can scarcely do better than this one taken at Trent Bridge in 1996. Sachin Tendulkar's fierce cut - minimalist in style when compared to Brian Lara's rotating wrists and shoulders - puts Nasser Hussain and Jack Russell on the defensive. All three are frozen at a different elevation, so much so that it looks like three separate cut-outs have been pasted together to make an unreal photo.
Tendulkar gave a chance before scoring but Atherton failed to hold on at gully. He went on to score 177, his tenth Test century and fourth against England. Hussain also made a hundred, his second in the series, but had to to retire hurt when he fractured his right index finger on the final over of day three. Russell took three catches and was dismissed for a fifth-ball duck.
The Test was drawn and England won the series 1-0. In 11 more Tests in England, Tendulkar scored only one more hundred, though he was dismissed in the 90s three times.
Full postWhere's the Tendulkar critique?
Is it all just good press? Is there any reasonable examination of his career amid the hagiographies?
11-Nov-2013
In the Outlook magazine, Suresh Menon wonders when intelligent speculation on Tendulkar's career will take place, when uncomfortable truths, like his involvement in the Sydney 2008 race row and the ball-tampering issue in South Africa, won't be glossed over.
Everybody plays safe with Tendulkar. His contemporary Sourav Ganguly was fair game (outside of Bengal), and copped criticism not just from the media but from ex-players too; Sachin had immunity from both. The writer Mukul Kesavan once wrote of the "fawningly good" press that Rahul Dravid always received, adding it would "embarrass a North Korean despot". Ditto, Tendulkar. For occasionally making a critical comment, I picked up an undeserved reputation for Sachin-bashing and enough hate mail to fill a book.
But it's not like there's no criticism. Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad, whose final international match was a World Cup quarter-final defeat to India, where he was booed by a partisan crowd in Bangalore, says Tendulkar has overstayed his welcome. "Some people are not going to like me for saying this, but there is always the right time to leave," Miandad told the Hindustan Times. "Just like how Pakistan didn't miss me when I left, India won't miss Sachin Tendulkar because there are plenty of good youngsters. I perhaps overstayed and that rubbed people the wrong way. Even in Sachin's case, people have been calling for retirement for the last two years... and he's finally going. Even if he leaves now, it won't matter much."
Full postFive days at Wankhede?
Will fans get their money's worth in Mumbai?
10-Nov-2013
The Sachin Tendulkar Party ended early in Kolkata after India beat West Indies by an innings inside three days. But fans hoping to get their money's worth in his final Test, at the Wankhede, have the assurances of Mumbai chief selector Sudhir Naik, who was the ground's former curator and is reprising that role for this Test at the request of the Mumbai Cricket Association, that "the wicket will have something for everybody".
"It is going to be a sporting track, Naik told the Daily News & Analysis. "Seamers will enjoy first couple of days and will get a good bounce and carry while the spinners will come into play on the fourth and fifth day. The batsman will have a say in between. It will be helpful for strokeplay. Sachin will definitely enjoy playing here and would like to get some runs. Since it will have bounce and turn, he can sign off in style with a good knock."
While Tendulkar has completed 24 years in international cricket, what have his team-mates from his first tour, to Pakistan in 1989-90, been up to all this time? The website cricketcountry.com takes a look at who's doing what.
Full postTendulkar's best ODI innings
Vote for Tendulkar's best ODI innings
10-Nov-2013
To borrow from Shane Warne, when it comes to one-day cricket there is Sachin Tendulkar, daylight and the rest. He is so far ahead of of the pack that one wonders if some of his ODI records will ever be broken.
Tendulkar began his one-day career batting in the middle order but his career graph took a steep upturn the moment he first opened the innings, against New Zealand in Auckland in 1994. He scored his first hundred later that year and went on to post 48 more centuries.
As you would expect, he has scored runs in varying conditions against a wide range of bowlers. His first ODI hundred was against an Australian side that fielded a young Warne and Glenn McGrath; his final ODI hundred against Australia, a scintillating 175 in Hyderabad in 2009, came after the two bowlers had retired from international cricket.
Full post'I am a normal person who plays cricket'
A selection of Tendulkar's interviews down the years
09-Nov-2013
Few cricketers in the modern era have been as sought after by the media as Sachin Tendulkar. Even before his international debut, reporters and TV crews were hunting him down for sound bytes.
Tendulkar's first major interview was as early as 1986, when he spoke to a journalist from Mid-Day at an Irani restaurant near Shivaji Park.
His television interview was as a 15-year-old, when he spoke to Tom Alter at Hindu Gymkhana - an interview that took place after Tendulkar had waited nearly two hours, sipping on cups of tea, as Dilip Vengsarkar was being interviewed.
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