Sachin Tendulkar is widely recognized as one of the greatest cricketers to have ever played the game. He is an icon not only of Indian cricket, but of the game itself, and to see him bringing out the World Cup resplendent in aviator sunglasses and being hero worshipped by Virat Kohli was a sight to behold.
He is the scorer of 51 Test centuries, 49 One-Day International hundreds and 142 tons in First-Class, List A and T20 cricket combined. This number puts him high in the echelons of great batsmen like Sir Donald Bradman, Dr. WG Grace and Sir Vivian Richards, to name but a few. He inspired a generation of Indian cricketers to dream big and take on the world, and quite literally take on his name.
One such player was a surprise star turn at the recently completed World Cup in India, only he was playing for New Zealand, and it turns out his name wasn’t quite what we were led to believe.
Rachin Ravindra hit blistering hundreds against England, Australia and Pakistan and stories began circulating that his first name was a mash-up of his fathers favourite cricketers, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. It was a wonderful story, which made him seem predestined for cricketing success, but sadly it turns out it wasn’t true.
His father revealed near the end of the tournament that the name was just one he and his wife liked when the young boy was born and the combination was purely coincidental, a happy accident of fate.
While that story, while a good one, turns out to be purely apocryphal, their are many cricketers plying their trade today who can lay claim to sharing the little masters name, and in many cases being named after him directly.
One such player is the wonderfully named Sachin Baby. His cricinfo profile states that on December 11, 1988 a 15 year old Tendulkar scored a century on his first-class debut for Bombay against Gujarat and a week later a cricket mad (and far sighted) father named his newly born son for the boy wonder. PC Baby blessed his son with a wonderful moniker but perhaps also cursed him with a weight of expectation. A left-handed batsman from Kerala, Baby has played 19 IPL matches for Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore with limited success, the highlight being playing in the IPL Final for RCB in 2016 and being not out on 18 although they succumbed to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 runs. He has represented South Zone and India A, and averages 37.00 for Kerala in first-class cricket and a touch over 40 in List A matches. He has 10 first-class centuries with a highest score of 250 not out, which he scored for Kerala against Services at Delhi in December of 2016. His highest List A score of 127 came in 2019 against Goa in Bengaluru, where he and Sanju Samson (212*) shared in a world record 3rd wicket stand of 338 and he has scored a century as late as last month, when he hit 104 against Mumbai in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, where his Kerala made it as far as the quarter-finals.
Now 34 years old, the chance of following in his namesakes footsteps and representing India have perhaps passed, but hope springs eternal for another young cricketer named Sachin who has also been belting hundreds recently.
While information online is scarce for a young batsman named Sachin Dhas, in mid November he blazed consecutive hundreds for India B Under-19s to force his way into the full India Under-19 squad for an Asian Cricket Council Asia Cup tournament in the UAE. The right-handed batsman first smacked his India A counter-parts for 135 off 112 balls with 12 fours and 7 sixes during a match in the Quadrangular Under-19 Series held in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. A few days later he took the best young bowlers of England apart in making 107 not out off just 78 balls, as India B Under-19s pushed the Under-19s of England to the brink before ultimately losing in the final over of the match. Whether Dhas has Tendulkar to thank for his name or not, he perhaps has a future in the game if he can maintain form like that.
There are a host of Sachin’s from a diverse mix of countries including Italy, Kenya, Serbia and Bahrain, as well as Costa Rica and Germany among others. There is a Singaporean cricketer named Sachin Mylavarapu who took 5 for 23 from 19.2 overs on first-class debut for Oxford University against Cambridge University in July of 2013 at Fenner’s. His slow left-arm orthodox claimed a further 3 for 87 in Cambridge’s second innings as he helped Oxford to an innings win, before he finished his first-class career with just one more match (and wicket) two years later against the same team at the same ground.
Sachin Fernando (Sebastianites C & A Club) and Sachin Jayawardena (Air Force SC) are among a selection of Sri Lankan first-class cricketers possibly named after the little legend who have scored centuries in years past, while Sachin Sharma is another recent centurion, having scored 100 not out off 145 balls for Arunachal Pradesh in a Vijay Hazare Trophy match on the 25th of November against Andhra at Chandigarh, a city in India’s north. It was just the 30 year old Sharma’s second List A game, following on from a slow 63 from 111 balls on debut a couple of days earlier against Rajasthan.
Sachin Kumar Singh is another Sachin featuring in this seasons Vijay Hazare Trophy, plying his trade for the east Indian state of Bihar. A slow-bowling all-rounder with a reasonable record (FC batting average of 45.53 and bowling average of 27.38 from 9 matches, List A batting average of 29.15 and bowling average of 25.64 from 18 matches), Singh has scored two first-class centuries but it is perhaps his first-class debut in early 2022 which holds the most interesting and relatable story. Playing against Mizoram in Kolkata, he was forced to watch on as the next man in for 126 overs as teammates Babul Kumar Singh (229*) and Sakibul Gani (341) put on a mammoth 4th wicket stand of 538. The young Sachin was then dismissed first ball upon arrival at the crease, his first ball in first-class cricket, caught by Taruwar Kohli off the bowling of Iqbal Abdulla for a painful golden duck. The trudge off the park probably took longer than the innings itself!
Four for 67 off 30.3 overs would've softened the blow when he got his first turn to bowl later in the match, while he hit his maiden first-class century in his 3rd match later in the year against Arunachal Pradesh, finishing with 156 off 198 balls. His second century was an important knock in the 2022/23 Ranji Trophy Plate Final, his 132 in Bihar’s second innings helping them win the Plate against Manipur earlier this year.
One more namesake springs to mind, but his first name is not Sachin, but Arjun. Arjun Tendulkar is the great man’s son, of course, but is not quite a chip off the old block. A tall left arm pace bowler primarily, Arjun made his debut for the Mumbai Indians in this years IPL, playing four games for the beloved team of his father, claiming 3 wickets and having just one chance to bat, hitting a six in a cameo of 13. He plays his first-class cricket for Goa and just like his old man he scored a century on first-class debut. Coming in at number 7 against Rajasthan at Porvorim he made 120 off 207 balls, sharing in a 6th wicket stand of 221 with Suyash Prabhudessai, who made 212. He also claimed his maiden first-class wickets in the match, finishing with 3 for 104 as the game ended in a draw.
Since then he has hardly set the world on fire, although he did take 4 for 30 for Goa against Nagaland in the Vijay Hazare Trophy earlier this month and he has been retained by the Mumbai IPL franchise. At 24 years of age it remains to be seen if the pressure of bearing the family name becomes too much of a burden, but one thing is for sure: Arjun, just like all the Sachin’s who also bear his father’s name, have a lot to live up to before they get anywhere near the status of the original legend.