Encyclopedia of Trivia

Sachin Tendulkar was born at Nirmal Nursing Home in Dadar, Bombay on April 24, 1973. His father, Ramesh Tendulkar, was a well-known Marathi novelist and his mother, Rajni, worked in the insurance industry.

Sachin Tendulkar at MRF promotion event. By Bollywood Hungama,

Ramesh named Tendulkar after his favorite music director, Sachin Dev Burman.

Sachin played as a youngster with his half-brother, Ajit, for Sahitya Sahawas society’s cricket team at Bandra East. The leading Indian cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar was impressed with Tendulkar's talent and coached him at Shivaji Park in the mornings and evenings.

Sachin would practice for hours on end in the nets. If he became tired, Achrekar would put a one-rupee coin on the top of the stumps. The bowler who dismissed Tendulkar would win the coin, while if Tendulkar got through the entire net session without being dismissed, it was him who pocketed the rupee. He now considers the 13 coins he won then as some of his most prized possessions.

Tendulkar was a ball boy during the 1987 Cricket World Cup semi-final between India and England.

He shared an unbroken 664-run partnership in a Lord Harris Shield inter-school game against St. Xavier's High School in 1988 with his friend and teammate Vinod Kambli, who would also go on to represent India. 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.

On December 11, 1988, aged 15 years and 232 days, Sachin Tendulkar made his debut for Bombay against Gujarat at home and scored 100 not out in that match, making him the youngest Indian to score a century on debut in first-class cricket.

Tendulkar holds the unique distinction of scoring a century on debut in Ranji Trophy, Irani Trophy and Duleep Trophy.

He made his Test Cricket debut on November 15, 1989 against Pakistan in Karachi at the age of sixteen, and went on to represent India internationally for close to twenty-four years.


His first Test century was achieved against England in 1990, when he scored 119 not out.

The third umpire was first used in Test cricket in November 1992 at Kingsmead, Durban for the South Africa vs. India series. Sachin Tendulkar became the first batsman to be given out by the third umpire in an international game when he was dismissed (run out) by using television replays in the second day of the Test after scoring 11. 

He achieved his highest score in 2004 when he scored an unbeaten 248 against Bangladesh.

Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first cricket player to score a Double hundred in One Day International format in 2010 when he scored 200 not out against South Africa.

Sachin Tendulkar was the first cricketer to score 100 international cricket centuries. He achieved his much awaited 100th international hundred on March 16, 2012 against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup.

He scored a total of 51 centuries in Tests and 49 in One Day International matches; both are world records for highest number of centuries by a batsman. 

In Test matches, Tendulkar has scored centuries against all the Test cricket playing nations, and in One Day Internationals, Tendulkar has scored centuries against all of the cricketing nations that have permanent ODI status. 

He is the highest run scorer of all time in International cricket. Tendulkar played 664 international cricket matches in total, scoring 34,357 runs. 

Tendulkar at the crease, getting ready to face a delivery. By Vikas - The Legend

After a few hours of his final match on November 16, 2013, the Prime Minister's Office announced the decision to confer on Tendulkar the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award. He was the youngest recipient and first sportsperson to receive the honor.

Tendulkar was the first individual without an aviation background to be awarded the honorary rank of Group Captain by the Indian Air Force. 

Source Reuters 

Joseph Wells, the father of the famous author H.G. Wells, achieved a remarkable feat in cricket on June 26, 1862. He became the first bowler to take four wickets in four balls in a first-class match.

Wells was playing for Kent against Sussex at Hove. In the 18th over of the Sussex innings, he dismissed James Dean, Spencer Leigh, Charles Ellis, and Richard Fillery with successive balls. This is a feat that has only been achieved a handful of times since then.

Wells's achievement was made even more remarkable by the fact that he was playing in an era when cricket was very different from the game we know today. The pitches were slower, the bats were smaller, and the bowlers were not as strong as they are today.

Australian Albert Trott's eight wickets for 43 runs in the second innings of the third Test of the series against England in 1894–95, are the best bowling analysis by any bowler on Test debut.

On June 27, 1899 a 13-year-old schoolboy A. E. J. Collins scored 628 runs not out in a junior school house cricket match at Clifton College, Bristol.  It was the highest-ever recorded score in cricket until 2016.


THE only man ever to have captained England at cricket and football, Reginald Erskine Foster (1878-1914), also still holds the English record for highest Test debut — scoring 287 against Australia in 1903.

Alfred Lyttelton was the first man to represent England at both cricket and football. He died on July 5, 1915 after being struck in the belly during a cricket match in South Africa.

Caricature of Lyttelton keeping wicket in I Zingari colours, by "Ape" (Carlo Pellegrini) in Vanity Fair, 1884

Wilfred Rhodes of England and Yorkshire became in 1927 the only person to play in 1,000 first-class cricket matches.


WG Grace, Wilfred Rhodes and George Gunn all played cricket for England after their 50th birthdays.

Rhodes played his final England game in 1930, becoming at 52 years and 165 days, the oldest player who has appeared in a Test match.

Rhodes bowling side

Percy Jeeves, a Warwickshire fast bowler, was the inspiration for P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves in the Jeeves and Wooster series. He died in the trenches during World War I.

Australian cricketer Donald Bradman scored a world record 309 runs in one day in 1930, on his way to the then highest individual Test innings of 334, during a Test match against England.

Hedley Verity took a cricket world record 10 wickets for 10 runs in a county match for Yorkshire on July 12, 1932.

Jim Laker became in 1956 the first man to take all 10 wickets in a Test match innings when he returned figures of 10/53 in the Australian second innings. This combined with his 9/37 in the first innings gave him match figures of 19/90 in the Fourth Test at Old Trafford.

Standing at the stumps for 16 hours and ten minutes during the longest Test innings in cricket, Hanif Mohammad, playing for Pakistan against the West Indies in Barbados in 1958, scored 337 runs.

Mohammad Azharuddin of India is the only cricket player to score centuries in each of his first three Tests.

Indian cricketer Rajeev Nayyar set the record for the longest first-class innings of all time in November 1999 by batting for 1,015 minutes (16 hours and 55 minutes) in his innings of 271 against Jammu and Kashmir during a match of the 1999–00 Ranji Trophy in his home ground Chamba, He broke the previous record of 970 minutes set by Pakistan's Hanif Mohammad in a Test against the West Indies in 1958.

Sri Lankan cricketer Chaminda Vaas's eight wickets for 19 runs against Zimbabwe in 2001 are the best bowling figures in One Day International cricket

In 2004 Brian Lara scored a test innings record 400 not out against England.

India's Irfan Pathan became the first bowler to take a Test cricket hat-trick in the opening over of a match on January 29, 2006 vs Pakistan at Karachi.

The first international cricket match took place as early as August 28, 1841 when 18 members of the New York club travelled to Toronto to play a Canadian "eleven." They played for a stake of $250 a side, and in front of a decent crowd, the Americans won by ten wickets.


A tour to Australia in 1861 by an unofficial English team was seen as a "test of strength and competency," which led to the term "Test match."

In 1868 Australia’s first touring cricket company consisted of 13 Aboriginal men from the Gunditjimara, Jardwadjali, and Wotjobaluk nations in Australia. The men traveled to England to play 47 matches and were coached and captained by former all-England cricketer Charles Lawrence. 

At a historical cricket match between England and Australia played at the Oval in 1882 the Englishmen were beaten by 7 runs. On the following morning the Sporting Times published an obituary note on English cricket. It read:
IN AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE
of ENGLISH CRICKET,
Which died at the Oval
29th August 1882.
Deeply lamented by a large circle
of Sorrowing Friends and
Acquaintances.
RIP
NB - The body will be cremated,
and the ashes taken to Australia.

The following year, an English team went to Australia, its captain, the Hon. Ivo Bligh, was asked to bring back "the ashes." After England defeated the Australians 2-1, the Aussies burned a bail and put its ashes into an urn, which they presented to their victorious visitors. The Australians and Englishmen have fought for this urn (see below) ever since.

Source http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgreef/431806671/

The Australian cricket team captained by Warwick Armstrong became on March 1, 1921 the first team to complete a whitewash of The Ashes, something that would not be repeated for 86 years.

Armstrong (centre, middle row) with his 1920–21 team, considered one of the great Test teams of all time.

The controversial "Bodyline" cricket tactics used by Douglas Jardine's England peaked on January 14, 1933 when Australian captain Bill Woodfull was hit by a ball balled by English fast bowler Harold Larwood over the heart.  A bodyline delivery was one where the cricket ball was bowled at the body of the batsman, in the hope that when he defended himself with his bat, a resulting deflection could be caught by one of several fielders standing close by.  The tactic was devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman.

The first-ever cricket Test match in India was played at the Bombay Gymkhana ground between England and India on December 15 to December 19, 1933. Temporary stands were put up at the ground to accommodate a record crowd of 50,000 people, with tickets selling at five times their usual price. England won by nine wickets.



On August 18, 1948 the Australian cricket team  captained by Don Bradman completed a 4–0 Ashes series win, earning them the nickname of "The Invincibles" for being the first Test side to play an entire tour of England without losing a match.

It was the last Test in Don Bradman's career. Going into the match, if Australia batted only once, Bradman needed only four runs from his final innings to have a Test batting average of exactly 100, but he failed to score, bowled second ball for a duck by leg spinner Eric Hollies.

On March 28, 1955, at Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand were bowled out by England in the second innings of the second test match for 26 runs. Only opener Bert Sutcliffe reached double figures, scoring 11 and only three batsmen scored more than 1. This total is still a record test low.

in 1973 the first women's Cricket World Cup was held in England, two years before the first men's tournament.
In the first ever men's cricket World Cup in 1975, West Indies beat Australia by 17 runs in the final.

The 1977 Centenary Test was played between Australia and England to commemorate 100th anniversary of first Test match. Australia won by 45 runs, exactly the same margin as the first Test match.

Sachin Tendulkar became the first man to hit a double century in a one day international when he scored 200* against South Africa in Gwalior on February 24, 2010. The Indian star took 147 balls, to reach the milestone and his innings included 25 fours and 3 sixes.

Mohinder Amarnath of India is the only player to be dismissed for both handling the ball and obstructing the field in One Day International cricket

Source Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999. Published by Webster Publishing,

Like all bat-and-ball games, cricket evolved gradually from various sources. One game it is related closely to is "stool ball," which was played particularly at Easter. One player threw a ball at an upturned, three-legged stool which was defended - with his outstretched hand - by another player. Subsequently, a second stool was added. That is how the two wickets came into existence.

The first ever-recorded mention of cricket can be found in King Edward I's laundry accounts which mention a match at Newenden Kent. in 1300 The account of the Royal Household itemised the expenditure of a hundred shillings for the king's son, the Prince of Wales for "the Prince's playing at creag and other sports at Westminster."

The name of the game “cricket” is believed to have been derived in the late 1500s from the Middle French word criquet, meaning “goalpost.” It was first used to refer to a game in 1575, but the earliest definite reference to it being played in England was in a court case in 1598.
In 1628 the Archbishop’s Peculiar Court fines ten men 12d each for watching or playing cricket during a church service.

The oldest description of the sport of cricket has been attributed to a poem by William Goldwin, of King's College, Cambridge, published in 1706

The first fully documented cricket match was played in 1744, a thrilling affair between Kent and All England  played at the Artillery Ground, Finsbury, London, which was won by Kent by one wicket.

The first recorded women's cricket game took place in England on July 26, 1745.  The match was between the villages of Bramley and Hambledon near Guildford in Surrey with the Hambledon ladies winning by 8 runs.. According to a contemporary report in the Reading Mercury, "The girls bowled, batted, ran and catches as well as most men could do in that game."

A 1779 cricket match played by the Countess of Derby and other ladies.

Frederick Prince of Wales who captained Surrey and London Cricket teams died at the Honourable Artillery Company’s ground in 1751 after being struck by a cricket ball in the side.

A committee met in the Star and Garter in Pall Mall to draw up the rules of cricket in 1774

By 1700, two upright stumps two feet apart had taken the place of the original single stick. This arrangement soon proved inadequate as the ball went between the stumps without touching either of them. To remedy this, a third stump came into existence in 1776. The first time it was used was in a match in Surrey between Coulsdon and Chertsey.

In 1788 The Marylebone Cricket Club, (MCC) published the first official Laws of Cricket.

In its early years the Marylebone Cricket Club wicket was ‘prepared’ before a match by allowing sheep to graze on the grass.

Cricket reached the United States towards the middle of the eighteenth century and, until the advent of baseball, was pursued with zeal. George Washington was a cricket enthusiast and was known to have played the sport.

John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset organised an international tour of English cricketers to France in 1789, but it was abandoned due to the French Revolution.

In 1816 a law was passed by the MCC to declare round arm bowling illegal but was so unclear it proved impossible to enforce and round arm bowling continued.

Round arm fell into decline after 1864 when the current style of over arm bowling was legalized, although W. G. Grace continued to use it to the end of his career.

English cricketer Darren Gough about to deliver the ball overarm-style. By Stephen Turner  Wikipedia

The first Eton v Harrow cricket match took place in 1805. One of the players on the Harrow team was 17-year-old Lord Byron who despite suffering from a club foot had become a good all-around sportsman.

The first wides to be entered in a cricket scorebook were bowled in 1827.

As part of the celebration of the separation of Victoria from New South Wales, the initial first-class cricket match in Australia started on February 11, 1851 at the Launceston Racecourse in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). The match between teams from Van Diemen's Land and Port Phillip District (now Victoria), lasted two days and ended with the Tasmanian team winning by three-wickets.

The first recorded use of ‘duck’ or ‘duck’s egg’ to mean no score in cricket was in 1863.

Overarm bowling became legal in cricket in 1864.

A cricketer who scored no runs had a large zero placed next to his name on the scoreboard. Spectators soon remarked on the resemblance of the shape of this "nought" with that of an egg. So they called it a "duck's egg." Subsequently, they dropped the egg altogether, to keep the "duck."

Enraged by a controversial umpiring decision, when star Australian batsman Billy Murdoch was given out by the umpire, cricket spectators rioted and attacked the England cricket team during a match in Sydney, Australia on February 8, 1879.

An 1887 cricket match in progress at Sydney's Association Ground, the site of the riot

The major English county cricket sides met in 1889 to agree a way of deciding an order of ranking for the following season, giving birth to the County Cricket Championship.

The Sheffield Shield is a silver trophy purchased from a donation of £150 by Lord Sheffield to promote Australian cricket. It has been the object of annual cricket competitions between the the states since 1892-3 and was first contested between New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.

A cricket tournament at the 1900 Summer Olympics was held on August 19-20 at the Vélodrome de Vincennes in Paris, France. The tournament consisted of only two teams representing Great Britain and France. The British side was a touring club, the Devon and Somerset Wanderers, while the French team, the French Athletic Club Union, comprised mainly British expatriates living in Paris. The Devon and Somerset Wanderers team won the gold medal after defeating the the French Athletic Club Union by 158 runs. This was the only time that cricket was included in the Olympic Games, and it was not included in the Olympic program again due to a lack of interest and the absence of any international governing body for the sport at the time.

In 1907 George Dennett, aided by Gilbert Jessop, dismissed Northamptonshire for 12 runs, the lowest total in first-class cricket.

 On June 2, 1975, a freak snowstorm hit England, bringing snow to many parts of the country, including Buxton, where a county cricket match between Derbyshire and Lancashire was being played. The snow was so heavy that it covered the pitch, forcing the umpires to abandon play. This was the first time that snow had stopped play in an English county cricket match since 1962.

Cricket was allowed under the Taliban in Afghanistan, but applause by the crowd was banned.

Yorkshire has won the county cricket championship more often than any other county: 30 times plus once shared.

In cricket a score of 111 is often called a Nelson, supposedly referring to one arm, one eye and one leg. But Lord Nelson always had two legs.

Source Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999. Published by Webster Publishing

Sir Donald Bradman was an Australian cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of the sport.

Sir Donald Bradman was born on August 27, 1908 at Cootamundra, New South Wales. As a youth, he learned timing by hitting a ball against a corrugated metal tank.

He hit his first century at the age of 12, playing for Bowral Public School against Mittagong High School.

Donald Bradman made his debut in first-class cricket aged 19 for New South Wales against South Australia on December 16, 1927. Batting at No. 7, he secured the achievement of a century on debut with an innings of 188.

On his first visit to England, Bradman established a test record on July 11, 1930,  by scoring 334 runs in one innings at Headingly.


Bradman still holds the record for the most runs in a single day’s play in a test match - 309 during his 334 innings against England at Headingly in 1930.

Walt Disney is said to have decided on Donald Duck’s name after Donald Bradman was out for a duck against New York West Indians in 1932.

Bradman joined the Royal Australian Air Force on June 28, 1940. Surprisingly, in light of his batting prowess, a routine army test revealed that he had poor eyesight. He was later transferred to the Australian Army due to his poor sight.

In his last cricket innings, Donald Bradman needed only 4 runs to attain a test cricket batting average off 100. He was out second ball for zero and finished with an average of 99.94, the highest average in Test history.

He is also known fondly as Beefy and Guy the Gorilla due to his large build.


His famous play during the 1981 Test series resulted in the 1981 Ashes between England and Australia becoming known as Botham’s Ashes. On the 4th day of the Headingly Test,  whilst England was predicted to lose by the Bookies at an odds of 500-1, Botham single-handedly made the comeback with his innings of 149 not-out.

On five occasions, Botham scored a century and took five wickets in an innings in the same Test match, No other player has done this more than three times.