Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday completed 20 years in international cricket and became the first Indian and only the 16th in the history of the game to have a career spanning more than two decades. Tendulkar, who made his debut as a 16-year-old against Pakistan way back in November 15, 1989, will reach the milestone of 20 years and one day in international cricket when he comes out to play against Sri Lanka in the first Test of the three-match series in Ahmedabad on Monday.In his Test career spanning 19 years 143 days till date, Tendulkar has represented India in a record 159 Tests. He also played a record 436 50-over matches in his 19 years and 325 days one-day career, thus becoming only the second player after Pakistan's Javed Miandad to have the longest ODI career. The Indian batting maestro is also the only active cricketer to feature in the longest Tests career list and at 36 years of age he is still going strong. In his two decades long career, Tendulkar had written many records which catapulted him to the honour of being the milestone man.In an era where 15 minutes of fame is the order of the day and icons often have hidden feet of clay, Sachin Tendulkar remains a glorious exception, his 20 years of undiminished aura showing no signs of waning. No other cricketer has managed to seamlessly combine both statistics and aesthetics to underline his greatness like Tendulkar did, retaining the innocence and humility of his early days all along.Since his debut on 15th November 1989, the teen with curly hair and a sing-song voice has grown so much in stature that now men who matter sit up and take note every time Tendulkar says something. Tendulkar's wicket would catapult any domestic bowler to national reckoning. He puts in a word and Mahendra Singh Dhoni is anointed India captain. He suggests splitting one day cricket into four innings of 25 overs each not an original idea and ICC agrees, in principle, to put it on trial.It has been a long journey for the batting great and Tendulkar is not interested in retirement talks yet. That he was very special evident right from his school days and the first evidence of his precocious talent was the unbeaten 664-run stand he shared with buddy Vinod Kambli in the Lord Harris Shield Inter-School Game in 1988.