Tendulkar married Anjali in 1995.
However, Anjali's mother, Annabelle Mehta, has spoken up about the time Sachin requested her daughter's hand in marriage - when the star batter was only 19 years old - and how the planned marriage was kept a secret.
Anjali's family relocated from England to India in the 1950s, and Annabelle has opened up about her experiences in her new memoir, 'My Passage to India'. Annabelle tells about the day Sachin came to meet her and proposed marrying Anjali.
"I had clocked by then that Sachin was the brightest star in the Indian cricketing firmament, but I was concerned by the possibility of him becoming a playboy like so many of his fellow cricketers. Sachin in the nineties was like David Beckham in England. I needed to look him in the eye and ask him how he felt about my daughter," writes Annabelle in her memoir published by the Times of India.
Sachin's response took Annabelle by surprise.
'We want to get married' were his precise words. I was astounded. I had always imagined Anjali marrying a tall, dark, and handsome man. Dark and handsome, Sachin was. But at nineteen, he was still a boy. And so small. Barely taller than Anjali, who is five-foot-five and a half. Sachin's bouncy hair probably gives him another inch, but not enough for Anjali to wear the high heels she had always loved," adds Annabelle.
This happened when Sachin Tendulkar was 19 years old, but he waited till he was 22 to get married to Anjali.