Sachin Tendulkar: The legend turns 40

Thursday, 25 April 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sachin Tendulkar turned 40 on Wednesday with cricket administrators and his fans lining up a series of events to celebrate the senior Indian batsman, who will also appear in a T20 match in Kolkata.

The Mumbai Indians batsman, who happens to here for his team’s clash against

Kolkata Knight Riders, will begin the day with a customary cake-cutting ceremony at the team hotel.

Earlier, the Cricket Association of Bengal celebrated Tendulkar’s birthday a day in advance by cutting a 10-pound cake in the presence of 100 blind students.

The blind students from Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission Blind School and Light House for the Blind cut the cake in the evening.

“We are overwhelmed with joy. We want Tendulkar to live 100 years,” a message from the CAB read.

Wednesday’s 40-pound cake cutting ceremony will be a private affair near the dressing room. Tendulkar’s wife Anjali joined him last night along with team owner Nita Ambani for more celebrations.

The chocolate cake will be made up from special cocoa from Ghana and Madagascar. It will have an image of Tendulkar and it could be that of the World Cup-winning moment of April 2, 2011.

In a career spanning 24 years, Tendulkar has got almost all the batting record to his name other than Brian Lara’s Test highest of 400 not out.

Tendulkar, who has called it quits from the ODI format to prolong his Test career, has a colossal 18426 runs from 463 matches with 49 hundreds at an average of 44.83.

In the leading run-getters list of Test matches, Tendulkar is sitting on 15837 runs with 51 hundreds, way ahead of South African veteran Jacques Kallis who with 13128 runs is the only playing batsman to be in the race at fourth place.

Tendulkar has played only one T20 for India as he has limited his Twenty20 ambition to his franchise Mumbai Indians in the IPL.