Book review
This is not a scorebook, nor is it an accumulation of facts or the extension of a globally recognised brand. This is the first in-depth and comprehensive biography of Sachin Tendulkar, and it puts Sachin the cricketer and the human being in perspective. Tendulkar’s story is told here grippingly, with a wealth of rare, unpublished anecdotes that throw fresh light on a remarkable career.

The book probes the psychological birth and growth of the world’s leading batsman, examines the historical forces that shaped his personal and cricketing character, analyses his cricket planning and actions and evaluates the history the man himself has created, whether by making his Test debut at 16 or by breaking records with a stunning regularity.

It just as carefully chronicles and discusses his disappointments, failures and the controversies that have cropped up around his name, and provides an insight into Tendulkar the man, who has for so long been kept from public view. Above all, the book places Tendulkar in the context of the international cricket tradition and determines his exact place in world cricket history. Capacious and yet crisp, Sachin Tendulkar: A Definitive Biography is Tendulkar in totality.


About the author Vaibhav Purandare grew up playing cricket at Shivaji Park, Mumbai, at the same time as the school-going Sachin Tendulkar was amassing loads of runs on the field. He watched helplessly as Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli walked away with a world-record partnership against his school. Purandare was taught in college by Tendulkar’s father, Professor Ramesh Tendulkar, and was coached as a right-hand batsman and off-spin bowler by Tendulkar’s coach, Ramakant Acharekar. He began his journalistic career in 1993 with the political newsmagazine Blitz and has since worked with India’s leading newspapers like The Indian Express and The Asian Age, apart from writing for a host of other publications. His first book, The Sena Story, a history of the Hindu militant political party Shiv Sena, was published in 1999, when he was only 23. He is currently an assistant editor with Mid Day, Mumbai’s largest-selling eveninger.