He debuted at 16, against Pakistan, in a country that had just started calling him “the next big thing.” Twenty-four years later, he retired as the only man with 100 international centuries.
✊ Must Know
1. Debut, 100 Centuries, and the Bharat Ratna
- Fact Sachin Tendulkar, born 24 April 1973 in Mumbai, is widely called the “God of Cricket.”
- Fact He made his international debut in November 1989, against Pakistan in Karachi, aged 16.
- Data He is the only cricketer with 100 international centuries: 51 in Tests, and 49 in ODIs.
- Fact He retired from Test cricket after his 200th Test, played 14–16 November 2013, at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
- Link In 2014, he became the first sportsperson to receive the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award. At 40, he was also its youngest-ever recipient. See GK0009 — Bharat Ratna.
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2. Achrekar’s Coaching, the 2011 World Cup, and Other Honours
- Fact He trained under coach Ramakant Achrekar, at Shivaji Park, Mumbai.
- Link He scored a century on his first-class debut, for Bombay against Gujarat, on 11 December 1988, aged 15.
- Link His 100th international century came on 16 March 2012, against Bangladesh, in the Asia Cup. His 99th had come during the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, which India also won. See GK0011 — Cricket in India for that tournament’s own story.
- Fact He retired from One Day Internationals in 2012, before his final Test in 2013. Across formats, his career totals came to over 34,000 international runs.
- Link He received the Arjuna Award (1994), the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (1997–98), the Padma Shri (1999), and the Padma Vibhushan (2008). The Bharat Ratna, in 2014, capped that list.
- Fact He served as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, from 2012 to 2018.
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💎 Great to Know
3. The Bharat Ratna’s Widening Scope, and 24 Years of Longevity
- Why Tendulkar’s 2014 Bharat Ratna marked a formal widening of the award’s scope. It had mainly covered arts, literature, science, and public service; sport was now explicitly included. See GK0009 — Bharat Ratna for that broader institutional story.
- Fact His international career ran 24 years, from 1989 to 2013. In that span, he played under, and outlasted, a huge range of teammates, captains, and even opposing playing generations. That kind of longevity is rare in professional sport.
- Takeaway The “100 international centuries” record gets cited on its own. But it also captures something else: consistency across two very different formats, Tests and ODIs, sustained over more than two decades, not just a short peak.
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