Sachin Tendulkar Votes on his birthday

Master Blaster, Cricket Icon Sachin Tendulkar who is celebrating his 41st birthday today, cast his vote along with wife Anjali around noon at a polling booth near their residence in suburban Bandra.

The Bharat Ratna awardee, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP reached the Supari Taki polling booth behind Lilavati Hospital to exercise his franchise. This is Sachin's first birthday after he quit all forms of cricket last year. After casting his franchise, the sports legend tweeted a selfie showing his inked finger and said, "I have voted..Have U ? A wonderful start to my birthday as a responsible citizen of our great nation."

Tendulkar recently returned from Dubai where the Indian Premier League is in action after being with his franchise Mumbai Indians in the initial phase of the T20 league.

Also, casting his ballot at the same polling booth was former India hockey captain Viren Rasquinha. He is now the CEO of a non-governmental set up called The Olympic Gold Quest, co-founded by badminton legend Prakash Padukone and Billiards ace Geet Sethi.

Tendulkar hung up his boots after a glittering international career that saw him amass 15,921 runs in Tests, at an average of 53.78, and 18426 runs in 463 ODIs at an average of 44.83.

He had scored 100 centuries during his international with Test matches accounting for 51 of those, the most by any batsman in the world. He was the part of 2011 World Cup winning squad captained by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

His 49 ODI tons is also a world record. The Bharat Ratna recipient, the first Indian sports person to get the highest civilian honour, has been seen in public on very few occasions after his retirement. However, as a sign that he's got other interests after quitting cricket as a player, he has now got involved in the IPL-style football league promoted by MI's owners Reliance Industries and IMG with the backing of the All India Football Federation.