WORLD SPORTS STARS: February 2011

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Sachin Tendulkar early years and personal life

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar About this sound pronunciation Marathiborn 24 April 1973 is an Indian cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the leading run-scorer and century maker in Test and one-day international cricket. He is the only male player to score a double century in the history of ODI cricket. In 2002, just 12 years into his career, Wisden ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Donald Bradman, and the second greatest one-day-international (ODI) batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards. In September 2007, the Australian leg spinner Shane Warne rated Tendulkar as the greatest player he has played with or against.
Tendulkar is the first and the only player in Test Cricket history to score fifty centuries, and the first to score fifty centuries in all international cricket combined; he now has 97 centuries in international cricket. On 17 October 2008, when he surpassed Brian Lara's record for the most runs scored in Test cricket, he also became the first batsman to score 12,000, 13,000 and 14,000 runs in that form of the game, having also been the third batsman and first Indian to pass 11,000 runs in Test cricket. He was also the first player to score 10,000 runs in one-day internationals, and also the first player to cross every subsequent 1000-run mark that has been crossed in ODI cricket history and 200 runs in a one-day international match. In the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, Tendulkar surpassed Australia's Allan Border to become the player to cross the 50-run mark the most number of times in Test cricket history, and also the second ever player to score 11 Test centuries against Australia, tying with Sir Jack Hobbs of England more than 70 years previously.Tendulkar passed 30,000 runs in international cricket on 20 November 2009. He also holds the world record for playing highest number of Test and ODI matches.Tendulkar has been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan award, India's second highest civilian award, and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honor. Tendulkar became the first sportsperson and the first personality without an aviation background to be awarded the honorary rank of Group Captain by the Indian Air Force.He has received honorary doctorates from Mysore University and Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences He won the 2010 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year at the ICC awards.
Contents
* 1 Early years and personal life
* 2 Philanthropy
* 3 Early domestic career
* 4 International career
o 4.1 Early career
o 4.2 Rise through the ranks
o 4.3 Captaincy
o 4.4 Injuries and apparent decline
o 4.5 Return to old form and consistency
o 4.6 2007/08 tour of Australia
o 4.7 Home series against South Africa
o 4.8 Sri Lanka Series
o 4.9 Return to form and breaking the record
o 4.10 ODI and Test Series against England
o 4.11 Sri Lanka ODIs
o 4.12 New Zealand Series
o 4.13 Compaq Cup in Sri Lanka
o 4.14 ICC Champions Trophy 2009
o 4.15 India-Australia ODI Series
o 4.16 Sri Lanka Series
o 4.17 Bangladesh Test Series
o 4.18 Series against South Africa in 2010
* 5 Indian Premier League
* 6 Style of play
* 7 Controversies
o 7.1 Mike Denness incident
o 7.2 Controversy over Ferrari customs waiver
* 8 Fan following
* 9 Business interests
o 9.1 Product and brand endorsements
* 10 Biographies
* 11 Career achievements
o 11.1 Individual honours and appreciations
* 12 See also
* 13 Notes
* 14 References
* 15 Further reading
* 16 External links
Early years and personal life
Tendulkar was born in Bombay (now Mumbai). His mother, Rajni, working in insurance, and his father, Ramesh Tendulkar, a Marathi novelist, named Tendulkar after his favourite music director, Sachin Dev Burman. Tendulkar's elder brother Ajit encouraged him to play cricket. Tendulkar has two other siblings: a brother Nitin, and sister Savita.
Tendulkar attended Sharadashram Vidyamandir (High School), where he began his cricketing career under the guidance of his coach and mentor, Ramakant Achrekar. During his school days he attended the MRF Pace Foundation to train as a fast bowler, but Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee, who took a world record 355 Test wickets, was unimpressed, suggesting that Tendulkar focus on his batting instead.
When he was young, Tendulkar would practice for hours on end in the nets. If he became exhausted, Achrekar would put a one-Rupee-coin on the top of the stumps, and the bowler who dismissed Tendulkar would get the coin. If Tendulkar passed the whole session without getting dismissed, the coach would give him the coin. Tendulkar now considers the 13 coins he won then as some of his most prized possessions.
While at school, he developed a reputation as a child prodigy. He had become a common conversation point in Mumbai circles, where there were suggestions already that he would become one of the greats. His season in 1988 was extraordinary, with Tendulkar scoring a century in every innings he played. He was involved in an unbroken 664-run partnership in a Lord Harris Shield inter-school game in 1988 with friend and team mate Vinod Kambli, who would also go on to represent India. The destructive pair reduced one bowler to tears and made the rest of the opposition unwilling to continue the game. Tendulkar scored 326* in this innings and scored over a thousand runs in the tournament. This was a record partnership in any form of cricket until 2006, when it was broken by two under-13 batsmen in a match held at Hyderabad in India.
When he was 14, Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar gave him a pair of his own ultra light pads. "It was the greatest source of encouragement for me," he said nearly 20 years later after surpassing Gavaskar's world record of 34 Test centuries. On 24 May 1995, Sachin Tendulkar married Anjali, a paediatrician and daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta and British social worker Annabel Mehta. They have two children, Sara (born 12 October 1997), and Arjun (born 24 September 1999).

Sachin Tendulkar

virender sehwag cricketing career

Virender Sehwag About this sound pronunciation 20 October 1978, in Delhi, India, affectionately known as Viru, the Nawab of Najafgarh, or the Zen master of modern cricket,is one of the leading batsmen in the Indian cricket team. Sehwag is an aggressive right-handed opening batsman and a part-time right-arm off-spin bowler. He played his first One Day International in 1999 and joined the Indian Test cricket team in 2001. In April 2009, Sehwag became the only Indian to be honored as the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World for his performance in 2008,[subsequently becoming the first player of any nationality to retain the award for 2009.
Sehwag holds multiple records including the highest score made by an Indian in Test cricket (319), which was also the fastest triple century in the history of international cricket (reached 300 off only 278 balls) as well as the fastest 250 by any batsman (in 207 balls against Sri Lanka on 3 December 2009 at the Brabourne stadium in Mumbai). Sehwag also holds the distinction of being one of four batsmen in the world to have ever surpassed 300 twice in Test cricket, and the only one to score two triple centuries and take a five-wicket innings haul. In March 2009, Sehwag smashed the fastest century ever scored by an Indian in ODI cricket, from 60 balls.
Sehwag was appointed as vice-captain of the Indian team under Rahul Dravid in October 2005 but due to poor form, he was later replaced by V. V. S. Laxman in December 2006 as Test vice-captain. In January 2007, Sehwag was dropped from the ODI team and later from the Test team as well. During his term as vice-captain, Sehwag skippered the team in place of injured Dravid in 2 ODIs and 1 Test. Following his return to form in 2008 and the retirement of Anil Kumble, Sehwag has been reappointed as the vice-captain for both Tests and ODIs. By early 2009, Sehwag had reestablished himself as one of the best performing batsmen in ODI cricket.
Contents
* 1 Early years
* 2 Cricketing career
o 2.1 Early domestic cricket
o 2.2 ODI career
o 2.3 ODI summary
o 2.4 Test career
o 2.5 Sehwag in Non-India Colours
* 3 Playing style
* 4 Controversy
* 5 Personal life
* 6 International centuries
* 7 Achievements
o 7.1 Awards
o 7.2 Records
o 7.3 Test Matches Awards
+ 7.3.1 Man of the Series Awards
+ 7.3.2 Man of the Match Awards
o 7.4 ODI Cricket Awards
+ 7.4.1 Man of the Series Awards
+ 7.4.2 Man of the Match Awards
* 8 Notes
* 9 References
o 9.1 External links
Early years
Sehwag was born in a Jat family from Haryana. The son of a grain merchant, Sehwag spent his childhood in a bungalow in a joint family, with siblings, uncles, aunts and sixteen cousins. Though now settled in New Delhi, the Sehwag family hails from Haryana. Sehwag was the third of four children born to father Krishan and mother Krishna Sehwag, with two older sisters Manju and Anju, and younger brother Vinod. His father attributes his interest in cricket to a toy bat which he was given when he was seven months old. He attended Arora Vidya School in Delhi, and pestered his parents to let him play cricket, on the basis that he was not academically gifted. His father tried to end his career when he broke a tooth as a child in 1990, but Sehwag evaded the ban with the help of his mother.Later he attended Jamia Milia Islamia for graduation.
Cricketing career
Early domestic cricket
Sehwag made his debut for Delhi cricket team in first class cricket in the 1997–98 season. He was selected to the North Zone cricket team for the Duleep Trophy the following 1998-99 season, ending fifth in the total runscoring list.The following year he was fourth on the Duleep Trophy run scoring list, including a 274, the highest score of the competition. This was attained against South Zone at Agartala in just 327 balls, and followed a rapid 187 from just 175 in a Ranji Trophy match against Punjab.He was then selected for the U-19 team which toured South Africa.He was seventh in the 2000–01 season with two centuries,but his consistency earned the attention of selectors and he became a regular member of the national team in mid 2001.
Since his international career started, he has continued to play for Delhi in the domestic competition whilst he is not occupied with international duty and has captained North Zone to victory in the Deodhar Trophy in 2004–05 and 2005–-06. He also had a short stint with Leicestershire in county cricket in 2003, but a back injury lead to a mutual termination of the contract.
ODI career
Sehwag's ODI career started poorly when he scored 1 against Pakistan in Mohali in April 1999 when he fell lbw to Shoaib Akhtar. His bowling performance was also ineffective and expensive, conceding 35 runs off 3 overs. He did not get another chance in the national team for 20 months.
Sehwag was not given another match until the home series against Zimbabwe in December 2000. Sehwag rose to prominence in his fourth ODI match in March 2001 when he scored 58 off 54 balls, against Australia in Bangalore. Combined with his three wickets, he help earn India a victory and was awarded his first man of the match award. followed this with an unproductive tour of Zimbabwe in mid 2001.
Sehwag had his international breakthrough in Sri Lanka in August 2001 when he was promoted to the opening slot for the tri-series also involving New Zealand. The promotion to open the innings came because regular opener Sachin Tendulkar was absent due to a foot injury. In the match against New Zealand that was to decide the finalist, he scored his maiden century from 69 balls. The century is the third fastest ODI century for an Indian behind Mohammad Azharuddin's 62 ball effort and Yuvraj singh's 64 ball effort. This was his first score beyond 50 in ten matches and saw him named man of the match. This performance earned him a regular spot in the ODI squad in the middle-order. He bettered his own record by hitting a 60-ball century against New Zealand during the 2009 tour. An innings of note in 2002 was the 22 ball half-century against Kenya in Bloemfontein, tying the second fastest 50 by an Indian. Because of his attacking cricket stroke plays, Sehwag has got many fans, including the WestIndies legend Desmond Haynes, who admitted that he is a great fan of him.

virender sehwag

tiger woods background and family

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods born December 30, 1975 is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No. 1, he is the highest-paid professional athlete in the world, having earned an estimated $90.5 million from winnings and endorsements in 2010.
Woods has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any male player (Jack Nicklaus leads with 18), and 71 PGA Tour events, third all time. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour. Additionally, Woods is only the second golfer, after Jack Nicklaus, to have achieved a career Grand Slam three times. Woods has won 16 World Golf Championships, and won at least one of those events in each of the first 11 years after they began in 1999.
Woods has held the number one position in the world rankings for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record ten times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in nine different seasons.
On December 11, 2009, Woods announced he would take an indefinite leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity. His multiple infidelities were revealed by over a dozen women, through many worldwide media sources. Woods returned to competition for the 2010 Masters on April 8, 2010, after a break lasting 20 weeks.
In July 2010, Forbes announced Woods as the richest sportsman in the world, earning a reported $105m according to them and $90.5m according to Sports Illustrated.
On October 31, 2010, Woods lost the world number 1 ranking to Lee Westwood.
Contents
* 1 Background and family
* 2 Early life and amateur golf career
* 3 College golf career
* 4 Professional career
o 4.1 1996–98: early years and first major win
o 4.2 1999–2002: slams
o 4.3 2003–04: Swing adjustments
o 4.4 2005–07: resurgence
o 4.5 Death of father
o 4.6 Returns to top form
o 4.7 2008: injury-shortened season
o 4.8 2009: returning to the PGA Tour
o 4.9 2010: turbulent, winless season
o 4.10 2011
* 5 Playing style
* 6 Equipment
* 7 Other ventures and aspects
o 7.1 Charity and youth projects
o 7.2 Writings
o 7.3 Golf course design
o 7.4 Endorsements
o 7.5 Honors
o 7.6 Politics
o 7.7 Cut streak
o 7.8 Tiger-proofing
o 7.9 Ryder Cup performance
* 8 Career achievements
o 8.1 Major championships
+ 8.1.1 Wins (14)
+ 8.1.2 Results timeline
o 8.2 World Golf Championships
+ 8.2.1 Wins (16)
+ 8.2.2 Results timeline
o 8.3 PGA Tour career summary
* 9 Personal life
o 9.1 Marriage
o 9.2 Marital infidelities and career break
+ 9.2.1 Woods injured in car accident
+ 9.2.2 More women come forward with claims
+ 9.2.3 Sponsorships, business deals ended
+ 9.2.4 Press conference apology
+ 9.2.5 Announces return to competition
+ 9.2.6 Woods admits to multiple infidelities
+ 9.2.7 Woods, Nordegren divorce
+ 9.2.8 Tiger Woods: The Rise and Fall documentary
o 9.3 Other
* 10 See also
* 11 References
* 12 Further reading
* 13 External links
Background and family
Woods was born in Cypress, California, to Earl (1932–2006) and Kultida (Tida) Woods (born 1944). He is the only child of their marriage but has two half-brothers, Earl Jr. (born 1955) and Kevin (born 1957), and a half-sister, Royce (born 1958) from the 18-year marriage of Earl Woods and his first wife, Barbara Woods Gray.[citation needed] Earl, a retired lieutenant colonel and Vietnam War veteran, was of mixed African American, Chinese, and Native American ancestry. Kultida (née Punsawad), originally from Thailand, is of mixed Thai, Chinese, and Dutch ancestry. This makes Woods himself half Asian (one-quarter Chinese and one-quarter Thai), one-quarter African American, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth Dutch.He refers to his ethnic make-up as “Cablinasian” (a syllabic abbreviation he coined from Caucasian, Black, (American) Indian, and Asian).
From childhood he was raised as a Buddhist and actively practised this faith from childhood until well into his adult career. He has attributed his deviations and infidelity to his losing track of Buddhism. He said that "Buddhism teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught."
At birth, Woods was given 'Eldrick' and 'Tont' as first and middle names. His middle name, Tont (Thai: ต้น), is a traditional Thai name. He got his nickname from a Vietnamese soldier friend of his father, Vuong Dang Phong, whom his father had also given the Tiger nickname. He became generally known by that name and by the time he had achieved national prominence in junior and amateur golf, he was simply known as 'Tiger' Woods.