Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (i/səˈtʃɪn tɛnˈduːlkər/; born 24 April 1973)[1] is an Indian cricketer widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of his generation.[2][3] Born in Mumbai, he took up cricket at age of eleven, made his test debut against Pakistan at just sixteen years old, and went on to represent Mumbai domestically and India internationally for more than twenty years. He retired from the Indian Premier League in May 2013 and has announced that he will retire from the sport in November 2013 after playing his two-hundredth test match, against the West Indies in Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.[4][5][6] He is the first player to score one hundred international centuries, the first player to score a double century in a One Day International, and thus far the only to complete 34,000 runs in international cricket.[7][8][9][10] In 2002, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Don Bradman, and the second greatest one-day-international (ODI) batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards.[11] Tendulkar was a part of the 2011 Cricket World Cup winning Indian team in the later part of his career, his first such win in six World Cup appearances for India.[12] He was also the recipient of "Player of the Tournament" award of the 2003 Cricket World Cup held in South Africa. In October 2013, he became the only Indian cricketer to be named in an all-time Test World XI to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.[13][14][15][16] Tendulkar won the 2010 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year at the ICC awards.[17] He has been recommended for the receipt of the Bharat Ratna award, in fact it has been speculated that the criteria for the award of the Bharat Ratna were changed to allow him receive the award.[18][19] He is also a member of Rajya Sabha of Parliament of India.[20] As of October 2013, Tendulkar has played 662 matches in international cricket.[21] On 5 October 2013, Sachin Tendulkar became the 16th player and first Indian to aggregate 50,000 runs in all recognised cricket (First-class cricket, List A cricket and Twenty20 combined)
