Claim: Sachin Tendulkar received India's highest civilian award.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar -LRB- -LSB- sətʃɪn_tɛnˈduːlkər -RSB- born 24 April 1973 -RRB- is a former Indian cricketer and captain , widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time . He took up cricket at the age of eleven , made his Test debut on 15 November 1989 against Pakistan in Karachi at the age of sixteen , and went on to represent Mumbai domestically and India internationally for close to twenty-four years . He is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries , the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International , the holder of the record for the number of runs in both ODI and Test cricket , and the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket .   In 2002 , just halfway through his career , Wisden Cricketers ' Almanack ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time , behind Don Bradman , and the second greatest ODI batsman of all time , behind Viv Richards . Later in his career , Tendulkar was a part of the Indian team that won the 2011 World Cup , his first win in six World Cup appearances for India . He had previously been named `` Player of the Tournament '' at the 2003 edition of the tournament , held in South Africa . In 2013 , he was the only Indian cricketer included in an all-time Test World XI named to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers ' Almanack .   Tendulkar received the Arjuna Award in 1994 for his outstanding sporting achievement , the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1997 , India 's highest sporting honour , and the Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan awards in 1999 and 2008 , respectively , India 's fourth and second highest civilian awards . After a few hours of his final match on 16 November 2013 , the Prime Minister 's Office announced the decision to award him the Bharat Ratna , India 's highest civilian award . He is the youngest recipient to date and the first ever sportsperson to receive the award . He also won the 2010 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year at the ICC awards . In 2012 , Tendulkar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha , the upper house of the Parliament of India . He was also the first sportsperson and the first person without an aviation background to be awarded the honorary rank of group captain by the Indian Air Force . In 2012 , he was named an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia .   In December 2012 , Tendulkar announced his retirement from ODIs . He retired from Twenty20 cricket in October 2013 and subsequently announced his retirement from all forms of cricket , retiring on 16 November 2013 after playing his 200th and final Test match , against the West Indies in Mumbai 's Wankhede Stadium . Tendulkar played 664 international cricket matches in total , scoring 34,357 runs .