17 Things you didn’t know about Sachin Tendulkar

You call yourself a Tendulkar fan? But do you know him in & out? Here are a few lesser know trivia about him you would love to feed yourself:

      1.      In the team bus, Sachin always sits on the front seat at the window on the left. (Is that superstition?)

      2.      Yes, he is, indeed, superstitious. He religiously wears his left pad before the right one. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                      3. Sachin is possessive about his gear. He doesn't like anyone touching his bats and gloves. He is so possessive about his Ferrari that he doesn't let wife Anjali drive it. 

      4.     Sachin loves narrating bedtime stories to his children. He has even invented a character called 'Rohan', the protagonist of all his bedtime tales.                                                                                                                  
            5.  He helps his children with the homework whenever at home, sometimes taking son Arjun's spelling tests.

      6.      He's hooked onto Discovery Channel and finds it informative and fascinating. 

       7.      Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly were sent to Dennis Lillee’s MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai as schoolboys and instantly rejected. “You’d better try batting,” Lillee told them.

       8.      Tendulkar’s love for seafood is not a hidden fact. But did you know that on his day, Master Blaster can smash 15-20 prawns down into his belly in one sitting! Reportedly, he also used to have had vada-pav competitions with fellow-cricketers Vinod Kambli and Salil Ankola.

9.      Pasted on the inside of Sachin’s kitbag are pictures of Ganpati and Shirdi Saibaba, good luck message from his kids and the revered Indian flag. (Even the God believes in Gods).  

      10.  Believe it or not but the Little Master has a reservoir of knowledge about different wines. He once lectured a colleague on the correct technique of opening a bottle of champagne — explaining to him the precise number of times the cork has to be twisted before popping it.

      11.  Sachin is ambidexterous. He bats & bowls with right hand but eats & writes with his left hand (I guess you already knew this fact). 

      12.  Sachin likes to dip his glucose biscuit into his tea (yes, he is one of ‘us’).

      13.  You think Sachin hasn’t sledged? Tendulkar claims he has sledged only once, at Glenn McGrath during an ICC knockout tournament in Kenya in 2000, to put the quality quick off his game in helpful conditions. “The first thing I said was ‘Today I will hit you out of the ground’. He got really angry and sprayed the ball around. This was exactly what we wanted.” India won.

     14.  The first person to sledge Tendulkar was Allan Border.

     15.  Tendulkar is a fan of using computer analysis. “The computer does play an important role in today’s cricket. You forget so many things. With the computer you can store them. For me the biggest advantage is you can study the opposition. The computer provides you with that vital two or three percent difference,” he says.

     16.  During the days of his courtship, Sachin once went in disguise to a Mumbai theatre to watch Mani Ratnam's Roja with future wife Anjali. To make sure nobody recognised him, he sported a beard and a pair of spectacles. However, there was a disaster in store for the Little Master since he was recognised by fellow movie watchers when, during the interval, he inadvertently dropped his glasses. The couple had to leave the hall midway through the film.   

     17.  The Indian team has a system of monetary fines for players coming late (to the bus or a meeting or a function) and for flouting the dress code. But Tendulkar has never had to pay up in 22 years.