Born April 24, 1973: Sachin Tendulkar, legendary Indian cricketer

On this day in 1973, legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who made a total of 664 appearances for the national side, was born.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) took to its official Twitter handle to extend birthday greetings to Tendulkar, who turned 47 on Friday.

Posting a picture of Tendulkar, the world's cricket governing body described the former opener as 'one of the most prolific batsman of all time.' The ICC also informed its followers that they will be getting an opportunity to vote for Tendulkar's top ODI innings.

"Happy birthday to Sachin Tendulkar, the most prolific batsman of all time!To celebrate, we will give you the opportunity to vote for his top ODI innings in a bracket challenge! Stay tuned to join the celebrations," the ICC wrote.

Regarded as one of the most complete batsman in the history of the game, Tendulkar holds almost all batting records which exists at the moment. 

Tendulkar made his international debut during a Test series againt arch-rivals Pakistan in Karachi in November 1989. A month later, he received his maiden One-Day International (ODI) cap against the same opponent.

Hailed by many as the ' God of Cricket', Tendulkar went on to make 200 appearances for India in the longest format of the game and amassed 15,921 runs in the Test cricket. He also featured in 462 ODIs for the Men in Blue, scoring 18,426 runs in the format. Meanwhile, the legendary cricketer made just lone appearance in the shortest format of the game which came during a T20I series against South Africa in 2006.

Tendulkar is also the leading run scorer in the Test and ODI formats of the game. The former Indian opener also holds the record of highest number of centuries in the international cricket--a mind-numbing 100 tons.

He also holds the records of most ODIs played by any cricketer. Besides this, Tendulkar also received the most number of the 'Man of the Matches' and ' Man of the Series' awards by any cricketer with 62 and 52 awards, respectively.

Besides this, 'Master Blaster' Tendulkar is the only player to have accomplished rare ODI triple i.e 15000 runs (18426), 100 wickets (154) and 100 catches (140).

He is also the only batsman to have scored eight or more centuries against two teams. Tendulkar had notched up nine tons against Australia--most hundreds against any team-- and eight tons against Sri Lanka during his career.

Moreover, Tendulkar's illustrious career spanned over six ICC World Cup appearances from 1992 to 2011 before he finally managed to lift the coveted trophy when the then Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets in the final of the 2011 edition of the tournament at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

On November 16, 2013, Tendulkar bid a tearful adieu to his international career following a Test match against the West Indies in his home state Mumbai. He contributed a fluent 74 runs during that match which India won by an innings and 126 runs.