New Delhi, Sep 7 (UNI) Dennis Lillee dashed his dream of becoming a fast bowler discarding him after trial at the MRF Pace Academy; the first bowler he faced was domestic help Laxmibai Ghije; he is actively involved with a charity trust called Apnalaya, run by his English-born mother-in-law while his father-in-law represented India in bridge.
These all are lesser known nuggets of Sachin Tendulkar's life as chronicled in a new book.
''The A To Z Of Sachin Tendulkar'' by Gulu Ezekiel brings to the fore a number of events and characters which shaped the life of the cricket icon and dares to do the unthinkable, capturing the life of a living legend within the covers of a 150-page book.
Inspired by Alan Eason's ''The A-Z of Bradman', Ezekiel's book contains some irresistible gems of Tendulkar's life and mentions obscure people who played crucial role during the Little Champion's crucial formative years.
Scattered here and there, the book compiles some interesting tit-bits about the batting maestro and his penchant for music.
A die-hard fan of ''Dire Straits'', Tendulkar met the lead singer of the British rock group Mark Knopfler in Mumbai and the duo exchanged a bat and a guitar and
Tendulkar revealed he was hooked on to the group's hit single ''Sultan of Swing''.
Sabyasachi Dev made a Hindi musical -- Main Sachin Tendulkar -- featuring four songs by popular singer Shaan and it had Tendulkar's coach Ramakant Achrekar
as the technical consultant.
In his first interview to a Mumbai daily, a coy Tendulkar admitted his liking for Michael Jackson numbers and said he was a good singer himself. This was quite natural for the cricketing genius who was named after legendary film composer Sachin Dev Burman.
The book also incorporates anecdotes and does not exclude anything for being trivial. It chronicles tennis legend Martina Navratilova sending a signed cap
to the Indian during a tri-series final in Melbourne.
At the same time, the writer recalls Mumbai umpire D S Gondhalekar who watched Tendulkar bat at the age of 12 and predicted the little Mumbaikar would make it big but passed away before his prophetic words came true.
Not many people know Tendulkar is perhaps the best table tennis player in the Indian team and even more intriguing is the fact that he is ambidextrous when it
comes to ping-pong.
Another interesting fact is that though his only superstition is putting the left pad on first, Tendulkar and Anil Kumble went through one ritual in the second Test
against Pakistan at the Ferozeshah Kotla in 1999.
Before claiming his first wicket, Kumble had passed his sweater to the umpire through Tendulkar and they continued the practice and in the end end, the lanky
leggie emerged as only the second bowler to capture 10 wickets in an innings.

UNI