The God of Cricket- through his amazing years!

He is the love of Cricket fans. The volume of crowd shouting "Sachin.. Sachin.. Sachin" cannot be forgotten. The crowd waves made with the direction of bat are something perhaps no Cricketer will enjoy for coming years. Though he has been a favorite of all, he was also a favorite of the critics. But Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar did not alter. He improved with every innings and match. he not only shut the mouths of all critics but ended up making them his fans.

Legends praised the boy who was sixteen when he debuted and now he himself the greatest legend of all. The boy from Mumbai who had unstoppable dreams and a will to reach them has won all of our hearts and become the God of the nation's religion- Cricket. A number of cricketers who play in Team India have confessed that it is because of him that they started playing.

It is because of him that we bleed blue. It is because of him that people believe in miracles. It is because of him that people eat, pray and live cricket. He is the epitome of cricket. He is THE GOD.

Here we present a few photographs of him in which the Little Master displayed his own class of life- legen-wait for it-dary!

1. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

Sachin, as we lovingly call him, was born on 24 April 1973 in a Maharashtrian family in the Bombay. His father, Ramesh Tendulkar, was a well-known Marathi novelist and his mother, Rajni, worked in the insurance industry. Ramesh named Tendulkar after his favourite music director, Sachin Dev Burman.

2. Cricket to make him a gentleman

Sachin as a child was very mischievous. He was almost a bully in his neighboring areas. To put an end to these tendencies, Ajit Tendulkar- his elder brother introduced him to cricket in 1984. He took young Sachin to Ramakant Achrekar, a famous cricket coach and a club cricketer of repute, at Shivaji Park, Dadar. In the first opportunity, Sachin did not play his best due to self-consciousness as the coach was observing him. Ajit requested the coach to give him another chance at playing, but watch while hiding. This time Sachin played his natural and did not miss the opportunity and was accepted at Achrekar's academy.

Even today, Sachin credits Ajit for what he helped him to be.

In the pic: Sachin with his parents and two brothers. Ajit Tendulkar is first from left in the back row.

3. An early start

On 11 December 1988, aged just 15 years and 232 days, Sachin made his debut for Bombay against Gujarat and successfully scored 100 not out in that match thereby making him the youngest Indian to score a century on debut in first-class cricket. He was picked to play for the team by the then Bombay captain Dilip Vengsarkar after watching him easily dodging India's best fast bowler at that time, Kapil Dev, in the Wankhede Stadium nets.

4. Finally the Team India Jersey

Raj Singh Dungarpur is credited for the selection of Tendulkar for the Indian tour of Pakistan in late 1989 and that happened just after one first class season of his'. In a 20-over exhibition game in Peshawar, held in parallel with the bilateral series, Sachin made 53 runs off 18 balls, including an over in which he scored 27 runs (6, 4, 0, 6, 6, 6) off leg-spinner Abdul Qadir. The then Indian captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth called it "one of the best innings I have seen."

5. No Looking back

He continued to perform like a storm, giving nightmares to most famous bowlers while he stuck to his ground and stayed undefeated. Wisden, or colloquially- the Bible of Cricket which is the cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom, stated:

He looked the embodiment of famous opener, Gavaskar, and indeed was wearing a pair of his pads. While he displayed a full repertoire of strokes in compiling his maiden Test hundred, most remarkable were his off-side shots from the back foot. Though only 5ft 5in tall, he was still able to control without difficulty short deliveries from the English pacemen.

The leap has just begun!

6. Unparalleled success!

There has never been one and perhaps will never be another Sachin or a player who will enjoy his success as much as he did. The fandom was crazy which was not restricted to India or other countries but to legends of cricket and an inspirational idol to the younger ones. He is the living proof that when talent meets the best teacher, coupled with consistent hard work and practice and the will to perform, you can grow to heights that reach higher than your dreams and imaginations.

7. The love of his life

On 24 May 1995, Tendulkar married Anjali, a paediatrician and daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta and British social worker Annabel Mehta. Anjali said in an interview that she first met Sachin at the Mumbai airport when he returned from his first tour of England in 1990, after scoring his maiden Test century and when she was there to pick up her mother while Sachin was arriving with the Indian team. They couple had a courtship of five years and got engaged in 1994 in New Zealand. They have two children, Sara (born 12 October 1997) and Arjun (born 24 September 1999).

8. Successful Businessman

He has enterprises, joint ventures, owns his own line of products, restaurants and what not! Perhaps it is rightly said that if you focus on your energies and push them in one direction with a willpower that is second to none, you cannot fail and success keeps knocking at your doorstep.

9. List of awards? Endless!

From Arjuna Award in 1994 to Member of Rajya Sabha to Bharat Ratna in 2014, Sachin Tendulkar has come a very long way and still has miles to go. Wisden Cricketer of the Year, Player of the tournament (infinite!), Honorary group captain by the Indian Air Force, Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year award, BCCI Cricketer of the Year award, Honorary Life Membership of Sydney Cricket Ground, Honorary Member of the Order of Australia- you name it and he has it all! Indian Postal Service released a stamp of Tendulkar in 2013.

10. The philanthropic Sachin

Tendulkar sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year through Apnalaya, a Mumbai-based NGO associated with his mother-in-law, Annabel Mehta. A request from Sachin on Twitter raised INR 1.02 crore (US$150,000) through Sachin's crusade against cancer for the Crusade against Cancer foundation. Sachin Tendulkar spent nine hours on the 12-hour Coca-Cola-NDTV Support My School telethon on 18 September 2011 that helped raise INR 7 crore – INR 2 crore more than the target – for the creation of basic facilities, particularly toilets for girl students, in 140 government schools across the country.

11. His retirement was heart rendering!

The crowd cried.

His family cried.

The teammates sobbed.

Media cried.

The ones sitting on their couches were tearful to hear him say goodbye to cricket with such a lovely, humble and down to earth approach of words.

He was, is and always will be the epitome of the game of gentlemen. Forever!

We LIVE you Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.