Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (Listeni/ˌsətʃɪn tɛnˈduːlkər/; born 24 April 1973) is a former Indian cricketer and captain, widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time.[4] He took up cricket at the age of eleven, made his Test debut on 15 November 1989 against Pakistan in Karachi at the age of sixteen, and went on to represent Mumbai domestically and India internationally for close to twenty-four years. He is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International, the holder of the record for the number of runs in both ODI and Test cricket, and the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket.[5]
Tendulkar received the Arjuna Award in 1994 for his outstanding sporting achievement, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1997, India's highest sporting honour, and the Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan awards in 1999 and 2008, respectively, India's fourth and second highest civilian awards.[11] After a few hours of his final match on 16 November 2013, the Prime Minister's Office announced the decision to award him the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.[12][13] He is the youngest recipient to date and the first ever sportsperson to receive the award.
In December 2012, Tendulkar announced his retirement from ODIs.[21] He retired from Twenty20 cricket in October 2013[22] and subsequently announced his retirement from all forms of cricket,[23][24] retiring on 16 November 2013 after playing his 200th and final Test match, against the West Indies in Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.[25] Tendulkar played 664 international cricket matches in total, scoring 34,357 runs.[5]
