As Sachin Tendulkar makes his last Test appearance for India – 15 facts you may not know about ‘the Little Master’

Cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar will make his final Test appearance against the West Indies in Mumbai this morning.

Plenty has been written about the Indian batting sensation over the years, but here are 15 facts you may not know about the man known as the ‘Little Master’

1) Tendulkar’s father-in-law is a seven time national bridge champion.

2) Tendulkar was named after the famous music director Sachin Dev Burman – his father Ramesh was a big fan.

3) His daughter Sara is named after the first tournament Sachin won as a captain – The ‘Sahara’ Cup in 1997.

4) Australian fast bowling legend Dennis Lillie rejected Sachin after he went to the MRF Pace Foundation hoping to become a fast bowler.

5) Tendulkar’s Test debut also marked India’s great all-rounder Kapil Dev’s 100th Test.

6) Sachin made a guest appearance in a Bollywood movie titled ‘Stumped’ in 2003.

7) Sunil Gavaskar gave 14-year-old Sachin a pair of his own ultra-light pads which were then stolen at an Indian under-15 national camp.

8) Tendulkar was the very first batsman to be given out by a third umpire when Karl Liebenberg sent him on his way in the 1992 Test series in South Africa.

9) Sachin has been involved in 20 hundred plus partnerships with Rahul Dravid.

10) It took Sachin 79 matches to score his first ODI century. After that, he scored 48 more.

11) Tendulkar has brought up a century with a six on six different occasions – the most by any batsmen.

12) He and Shane Warne visited Sir Don Bradman’s house on the most successful batsmen of all-time’s 90th birthday.

13) Tendulkar was the inspiration for a Virgin Comic superhero called ‘Master Blaster’.

14) He also had a toothpaste named after him in 2010 – called ‘Sach’.

15) Sachin appeared in an Australian reality television series called An Aussie Goes Bolly in 2008