Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar wished his childhood friend and former India team-mate Vinod Kambli on his 46th birthday on Thursday (January 18). Sachin and Kambli used to share a very good camaraderie during their playing days. The duo grabbed headlines when they stitched together a 664-run stand during a school match in 1988. The two Mumbai stars rose through junior cricket ranks and made it to the national team.

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, the Master Blaster posted a couple of nostalgic pictures with Kambli and captioned it as, "Tum jiyo hazaaron saal aur saal ke din ho hazaar. Wishing you a very happy birthday."

During their early days, both Sachin and Kambli were coached by the legendary Ramakant Achrekar. The duo were touted as the most talented Mumbai batsman in the last 80s and early 90s. While Tendulkar went on to become one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket, Kambli lost the track somewhere with his ill-discipline and dedication towards cricket.

As far as Kambli’s cricket career is concerned – the southpaw played 17 Tests for India, scoring 1084 runs at an average of 54.20 with 4 hundreds and 3 fifties. Vinod also represented India in 104 ODIs wherein he amassed 2477 runs at an average of 32.59 with 2 tons and 14 fifties. Vinod Kambli played his last international for India against Sri Lanka back in 2000.

Earlier this month, Kambli has taken up the responsibility of conducting a cricket coaching session in a Mumbai based academy. Vinod had also revealed that he took up the coaching role on the advice of Tendulkar.

"Sachin (Tendulkar) knows how much I love cricket, so he said to me why don't you start coaching, so I would say that I have embarked a path which he (Tendulkar) has shown and I have started on it," Kambli had said while addressing the reporters during the launch of a cricket coaching academy at the Bandra Kurla Complex of the Mumbai Cricket Association on January 2.

"So I would say that he (Tendulkar) has a big hand in bringing me back on to the field. Whatever we have learnt from (Ramakant) Achrekar Sir, so I think the time has come, that to pass it on to the next generation, if the youngsters can take advantage of this, it will be great," he further added.