Thirty-six summers back, this day, a cricketing legend came to life. Born in Mumbai, the young boy developed a fascination towards wielding the willow. The childhood days of playing cricket for fun dried up soon, and were replaced with a more overwhelming hunger to do well at the top level of the game. So, at an age when the normal school-kid would be thinking about scoring high marks in all his subjects, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was busy scoring big runs in the domestic circuit.

Sachin made his First-class debut in the 1988/89 season, and immediately the pundits of the game sat up and took notice. In the same season, he made his Test debut against the Pakistanis on their home soil. His first overseas tour was a baptism by fire, and Sachin came out with flying colors. The highlight of the tour was an exhibition match where Sachin went after the legendary Pakistani spinner Abdul Qadir and scored 28 runs off his one over. The master had announced his arrival.

After, this came the away tours to England and Australia. Young Sachin notched up his first international Test century with a splendid knock of 119n.o. against the Englishmen. In Australia he thrived on the bouncier tracks and picked up two hundreds, which were worth their weight in gold. Till this time now, Sachin Tendulkar had become the latest prodigy to watch out for world cricket.

In the 90’s Sachin became the back-bone of the Indian team. The opposition knew that if they could nail the master early, the whole Indian team would crumble down to defeat. If Sachin got out early the fans left the stadium and the other team members had their shoulders drooping. On his part, the little wonder-kid accepted the responsibility of being the star player quite gleefully. The run machine kept on adding to the list of centuries in both forms of the game.

With his amazing ability to play all-around the wicket and score runs at a fast pace Sachin soon became the new cricketing God for a nation obsessed with the game. He scored runs in all corners of the cricketing world. He had a way to tackle all the bowlers. Whether it was the Shane Warne or Shoaib Akhtar, Sachin found a way to smack them to all parts of the park. No wonder the master has more than 12000 runs in the Test arena along with around 16000 runs in the One-Day format of the game. With a combined total of 85 hundreds in both forms of the game, Sachin Tendulkar has etched his name alongside the great cricketers to have graced the playing field.

The master has turned 36, but his game is yet to be affected by the gremlins of age. On the contrary, given his recent form it looks as if he’s got fresh wind in his sail. On India’s last tour to New Zealand Sachin strung yet another series of good performances. Not only in the Test matches or in the one-dayers, Sachin has also kept pace with the latest form of the game, the T20 version. He is the mainstay of the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.