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For a player of his precocious genius, Sachin Tendulkar took to cricket - in the sense of organised play and practise, that is - after he had completed 10 years of age. Which, given that he was a world-ranked batsman before he was through with his teens, is late. But as this pic of Sachin, then five years old, shows, the basic, instinctive ability that makes the born prodigy was there all along. Note the easy, relaxed stance, the even distribution of weight - and the fact that the bat, even then, faces straight...