title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: The drawn series as India toured Australia in 2003–04 saw Tendulkar making his mark in the last Test of the series, scoring 241 not out from 436 balls with 33 fours at a strike rate of 55.27 in Sydney, putting India in a virtually unbeatable position. He spent 613 minutes at the crease during the innings. He followed this up with an unbeaten 60 in the second innings of the Test. Prior to this Test match, he had had an unusually horrible run of form, failing in all six innings in the preceding three Tests. It was no aberration that 2003 was his worst year in Test cricket, with an average of 17.00 and just one fifty.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar scored an unbeaten 194 against Pakistan at Multan in the following series. Indian captain Rahul Dravid declared before Tendulkar reached 200; had he done so it would have been the fourth time he had passed the landmark in Tests. Tendulkar said that he was disappointed and that the declaration had taken him by surprise. Many former cricketers commented that Dravid's declaration was in bad taste. After the match, which India won, Dravid said that the matter had been discussed internally and put to rest.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: A tennis elbow injury then took its toll on Tendulkar, leaving him out of the side for most of the year, coming back only for the last two Tests when Australia toured India in 2004. He played a part in India's victory in Mumbai in that series with a fast 55, though Australia took the series 2–1.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: On 10 December 2005 at Feroz Shah Kotla, Tendulkar scored his record-breaking 35th Test century, against the Sri Lankans. After this, Tendulkar endured the longest spell of his career without a Test century: 17 innings elapsed before he scored 101 against Bangladesh in May 2007. Tendulkar scored his 39th ODI hundred on 6 February 2006 in a match against Pakistan. He followed with a 42 in the second One-Day International against Pakistan on 11 February 2006, and then a 95 in hostile, seaming conditions on 13 February 2006 in Lahore, which set up an Indian victory. On 19 March 2006, after being dismissed for only one run against England in the first innings of the third Test in his home ground, Wankhede, Tendulkar was booed off the ground by a section of the crowd, the first time that he had ever faced such flak. Tendulkar ended the three-Test series without a half-century to his credit, and the need for a shoulder operation raised more questions about his longevity.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar's comeback came in the DLF cup in Malaysia and he was the only Indian batsman to shine. In his comeback match, against West Indies on 14 September 2006, Tendulkar responded to his critics who believed that his career was inexorably sliding with his 40th ODI century. Though he scored 141 not out, West Indies won the rain-affected match by the D/L method.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: During the preparation for the 2007 World Cup, Tendulkar's attitude was criticized by Indian team coach Greg Chappell. Chappell reportedly felt that Tendulkar would be more useful down the order. In contrast, the latter felt that he would be better off opening the innings, the role he had played for most of his career. Chappell also believed that Tendulkar's repeated failures were hurting the team's chances. In a rare show of emotion, Tendulkar hit out at the comments attributed to Chappell by pointing out that no coach had ever suggested his attitude towards cricket was incorrect. On 7 April 2007, the Board of Control for Cricket in India issued a notice to Tendulkar asking for an explanation for his comments made to the media. Chappell subsequently resigned as coach but said that this affair had no bearing on his decision and that he and Tendulkar were on good terms.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: At the World Cup in the West Indies, Tendulkar and the Indian cricket team led by Rahul Dravid had a dismal campaign. Tendulkar, who was pushed to bat lower down the order had scores of 7 against Bangladesh, 57 not out against Bermuda and 0 against Sri Lanka. As a result, former Australian captain Ian Chappell, brother of Greg, called for Tendulkar to retire in his newspaper column.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: After the loss against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Tendulkar suffered depression and thought to retire from cricket, but Viv Richards and Ajit Tendulkar stopped him. According to Sachin, 23 March 2007, the loss against minnows Bangladesh is one of the worst days of his cricketing career.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In the subsequent Test series against Bangladesh, Tendulkar returned to his opening slot and was chosen as the Man of the Series. He continued by scoring 99 and 93 in the first two matches of the Future Cup against South Africa. During the second match, he also became the first to score 15,000 runs in ODIs. He was the leading run scorer and was adjudged the Man of the Series.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: On the second day of the Nottingham Test on 28 July 2007, Tendulkar became the third cricketer to complete 11,000 Test runs.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In the subsequent one-day series against England, Tendulkar was the leading run scorer from India with an average of 53.42. In the ODI Series against Australia in October 2007 Tendulkar was the leading Indian run scorer with 278 runs.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar was dismissed five times in 2007 between 90 and 100, including three times at 99, leading some to suggestions that he struggles to cope with nervousness in this phase of his innings. Tendulkar has got out 27 times in the 90s during his international career. In a five-ODI series against Pakistan, he was caught by Kamran Akmal off the bowling of Umar Gul for 99 in the second match at Mohali, and in the fourth match of that series, he got out in the 90s for a second time, scoring 97 before dragging a delivery from Gul on to his stumps.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In 2008 India's tour of Australia, at Sydney Test Andrew Symonds accused Harbhajan Singh for racist comments, Symonds accused Harbhajan Singh for calling him a monkey. This matter is dubbed as "Monkeygate" by Australian media. Singh was suspended by the match ICC referee after hearing. Sachin Tendulkar was standing on non-striker's end, at that moment, when Symonds claimed racist comments happened. In the hearing of match referee, Sachin said to the ICC match referee Mike Procter, he can not say exactly what "Bhajji" (Singh) said to Symonds but in next hearing Tendulkar changed his stance and said to match referee that Harbhajan did not said Symonds "Monkey" but said, ""Teri Maa Ki..."" in Hindi it means, 'Your mother's...' . On this matter In his autobiography "Playing my way" Sachin Tendulkar wrote, ""Teri Maa Ki...", It is an expression we often use in North India to vent our anger and to me it all part of the game". The matter became big in following days and nearly led to cancellation this tour. Referee suspended Singh for 3 Test but after appeal and Sachin's statement in hearing the suspension was overturned. Andrew Symonds later said in "Monkeygate- Ten years on", a documentary that was based on this matter, "When I began to play for Mumbai Indians, IPL franchise, once Harbhajan Singh came to me and apologised." Symonds said in the documentary, "We go to a very wealthy man's place for a barbecue, drinks, and dinner one night, and the whole team's there, and he had guests there, and Harbhajan said 'mate, can I speak to you for a minute out in the garden out the front?' He goes, 'look, I've got to say sorry to you for what I did to you in Sydney. I apologise." Herald sun quoted, Tendulkar is still not "forgiven" by some Aussie players for changing his account on Monkeygate, dubbed Sachin as Indian "demigod".


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 2007–08, Tendulkar showed exceptional form, becoming the leading run scorer with "493 runs in four Tests, despite consistently failing in the second innings. Sachin scored 62 runs in the first innings of the first Test at the MCG in Melbourne, but could not prevent a heavy 337-run win for Australia. In the controversial New Years' Test at Sydney, Tendulkar scored an unbeaten 154, even though India lost the Test. This was his third century at the SCG and his 38th Test century overall, earning him an average of 326 at the ground at the time of completing the innings. In the third Test at the WACA cricket ground in Perth, Sachin was instrumental in India's first innings score of 330, scoring a well-compiled 71. India went on to record a historic triumph at the WACA, ending Australia's run of 16 consecutive wins. In the fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval, which ended in a draw, he scored 153 in the first innings, being involved in a crucial 126-run stand with V.V.S. Laxman for the fifth wicket to lead India to a score of 282 for 5 from 156 for 4. He secured the Man of the Match award.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In the One-Day International Commonwealth Bank Tri-Series involving India, Sri Lanka and Australia, Tendulkar became the only batsman to complete 16,000 runs in ODIs. He achieved this feat against Sri Lanka on 5 February 2008 at the Gabba in Brisbane. He started the series wth scores of 10, 35, 44 and 32. His form dipped a bit in the middle of the tournament, but Tendulkar came back strongly in India's must-win game against Sri Lanka at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart, scoring 63 off 54 balls. He finished the series with a match winning 117 not out off 120 balls in the first final, and 91 runs in the second final. Both the knocks were nominated to be the ODI Batting Performance of the year by ESPNCricinfo.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: South Africa toured in March and April 2008 for a three-Test series. Tendulkar scored a five-ball duck in his only innings of the series; he sustained a groin strain in the match and as a result was forced not only to miss the second and third Tests, but also the tri-series involving Bangladesh, the 2008 Asia Cup, and the first half of the inaugural season of the IPL.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Before the Indian cricket team's tour of Sri Lanka in July 2008, Tendulkar needed 177 runs to go past Brian Lara's record of Test 11,953 runs. However, he failed in all six innings, scoring a total of 95 runs. India lost the series and his average of 15.83 was his worst in a Test series with at least three matches.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In the following ODI series against Sri Lanka, Tendulkar was sidelined due to injury. However, during the following Australia tour of India, he returned to fitness and form, scoring 13 and 49 in the first Test before making 88 in the first innings of the second Test, breaking the record for most Test runs held by Brian Lara. He also reached the 12,000-run mark when he was on 61. He described the achievement as the biggest in 19 years of his career on the day he achieved the record. He made a fifty in the third Test and 109 in the fourth, as India won the series 2–0 and regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar was again out of the first three ODIs of a seven-match ODI series at home against England due to an injury, but he made 11 in the fourth ODI and 50 in the fifth, before the series was called off due to the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, the scoreline being 5–0 to India.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: England returned for a two-match Test series in December 2008, and the first Test, which was originally planned to be held in Mumbai, was shifted to Chennai following the terror attacks. Chasing 387 for victory in that match, Tendulkar scored 103 not out and shared a 163-run unbroken fifth wicket partnership with Yuvraj Singh. This was his third century in the fourth innings of a Test match, and the first which resulted in a win. He dedicated this century to the victims of the Mumbai terror attacks. The knock was nominated to be one of the Test Batting Performance of the year by ESPNCricinfo. Tendulkar scored poorly in the second Test at Mohali, which ended in a draw. India won the series 1–0.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In early 2009, India revisited Sri Lanka for five ODIs, as the Pakistan series had been cancelled due to the security situation in Pakistan and the attacks in Mumbai. Tendulkar scored 5, 6 and 7 in the first three matches, being dismissed leg before wicket in all of them, and did not play in the remaining two matches.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: India's next assignment was an away series against New Zealand, consisting of three Tests and five ODIs. In the ODI series, Tendulkar made an unbeaten 163 in the third match before stomach cramps forced him to end his innings. India made 392, won the match and eventually won the series 3–1. Tendulkar made 160 in the first Test, his 42nd Test century, and India won. He made 49 and 64 in the second Test and 62 and 9 in the third, in which play was halted on the last day due to rain with India needing only two wickets to win. India won the series 1–0.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar rested himself for the ODI tour of West Indies, but was back for the Compaq Cup Tri Series between India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand in early September 2009. He made 46 and 27 in the league matches before notching up 138 in the final, as India made 319 and won by 46 runs. This was Tendulkar's sixth century in a final of an ODI tournament and his third consecutive score of over 50 in such finals.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar played only one innings in the ICC Champions trophy in South Africa, scoring 8 against Pakistan as India lost. The next match against Australia was abandoned due to rain and he was out with a stomach infection in the third match against the West Indies, as India were eliminated.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Australia returned for a seven-match ODI series in India in October, and Tendulkar made 14, 4, 32 and 40 in the first four games. In the fifth match, with the series tied at 2–2, Australia amassed 350/4 in 50 overs. Tendulkar made his 45th ODI hundred, a 175 off 141 balls. Just when it seemed that he would steer India to the large victory target, he tried to scoop a slower delivery from debutant bowler Clint McKay over short fine leg only to be caught by Nathan Hauritz, with India needing 19 runs to win with 18 balls and four wickets left. The Indian tail collapsed, and Australia won the match by three runs. During this match, Tendulkar also became the first player to reach 17,000 ODI runs, and achieved his personal best against Australia, as well as the third-highest score in a defeat. The knock was voted as the Best ODI Batting Performance of 2009 by ESPNCricinfo.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in 2009–10, Tendulkar scored 69, 43, 96 not out and 8 in the first four matches, with the fifth match being abandoned as the pitch was deemed unfit and potentially dangerous. India won the series 3–1. In the Test series that followed, he scored a 100 not out in the first Test, which was drawn, and 40 and 53 in the second and third Tests, respectively, as India clinched innings victories in both the Tests, to win the series 2–0.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Sachin rested himself for the ODI tri-series in Bangladesh in 2010, but played in the subsequent Test series. He made 105 not out and 16 in the first Test, and 143 in the second. India won both the Tests.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In the two-Test Series against South Africa, Tendulkar made 7 and 100 in the first Test. He then scored 106 in the first innings of the second Test, which was his 47th hundred in Test cricket. It was also his fourth hundred in successive Tests, and he was the fourth Indian to achieve this feat. In the second match of the subsequent ODI series, Tendulkar scored 200 not out, becoming the world's first batsman to score a double century in ODI cricket and breaking the previous highest score of 194 jointly held by Pakistan's Saeed Anwar and Zimbabwe's Charles Coventry.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: From February to April, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka hosted the 2011 World Cup. Amassing 482 runs at an average of 53.55 including two centuries, Tendulkar was India's leading run-scorer for the tournament; only Tillakaratne Dilshan of Sri Lanka scored more runs in the 2011 tournament, and was named in the ICC "Team of the Tournament". India defeated Sri Lanka in the final. Shortly after the victory, Tendulkar commented that "Winning the World Cup is the proudest moment of my life. ... I couldn't control my tears of joy."


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: India were due to tour the West Indies in June, although Tendulkar chose not to participate. He returned to the squad in July for India's tour of England. Throughout the tour there was much hype in the media about whether Tendulkar would reach his 100th century in international cricket (Test and ODIs combined). However, his highest score in the Tests was 91; Tendulkar averaged 34.12 in the series as England won 4–0 as they deposed India as the No. 1 ranked Test side. The injury Tendulkar sustained to his right foot in 2001 flared up and as a result he was ruled out of the ODI series that followed. Tendulkar created another record on 8 November 2011 when he became the first cricketer to score 15,000 runs in Test cricket, during the opening Test match against the West Indies at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi. For his performances in 2011, he was named in the World Test XI by the ICC.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Ian Chappell was not happy with Sachin's performance after India's tour of Australia. He says that Sachin's quest for his 100th hundred has proved to be a hurdle for the entire team and has hampered their performance on the Tour of Australia. Former India World Cup winning captain and all-rounder Kapil Dev has also voiced his opinion that Sachin should have retired from ODI's after the World Cup. Former Australian fast bowler, Geoff Lawson, has said that Sachin has the right to decide when to quit although he adds that Tendulkar should not delay it for too long.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: The selection committee of BCCI expectedly included Sachin in the national Test squad for the upcoming series against New Zealand commencing in August 2012.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar scored his 100th international hundred on 16 March 2012, at Mirpur against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup. He became the first person in history to achieve this feat, which was also his first ODI hundred against Bangladesh. He said "It's been a tough phase for me ... I was not thinking about the milestone, the media started all this; wherever I went, the restaurant, room service, everyone was talking about the 100th hundred. Nobody talked about my 99 hundreds. It became mentally tough for me because nobody talked about my 99 hundreds." Despite Tendulkar's century, India failed to win the match against Bangladesh, losing by 5 wickets.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: After being bowled out in three similar instances against New Zealand and hitting a slump in form, Tendulkar returned to the Ranji Trophy to get back some form ahead of the England Series at home, in a match for Mumbai against Railways on 2 November 2012. This was his first Ranji Trophy match since 2009. He scored 137 off 136 balls, with 21 fours and 3 sixes, to take his team to 344 for 4 at stumps on day one.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: However, because of a poor form in the first two Tests in the series against England, and India being humiliated in the second match of that series by 10 wickets on 26 November 2012, some people have started to question his place in the Indian team. A report by "The Hindustan Times" said that Tendulkar had a discussion with the national chief selector Sandeep Patil, in which he said that he would leave it to the selectors to decide on his future as he is not getting any runs. This speculation, however, was later considered to be false.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Then he decided to play in the knockout stage of the 2012–13 Ranji Trophy. He scored 108 in the quarter final against Baroda before being bowled by Murtuja Vahora, where Sachin was involved in a 234-run partnership with opener Wasim Jaffer (150) for the 3rd wicket at Wankhede Stadium. Mumbai eventually piled on 645/9 and won on 1st innings lead. In the semi final against Services at Palam A Ground, with Mumbai reeling at 23/3, Sachin scored 56 from 75 balls and had an 81-run 4th wicket partnership with Abhishek Nayar (70), and Mumbai eventually won on 1st innings lead after the match went into the sixth day due to rain delays. In the final against Saurashtra, he was run out for 22 following a misunderstanding with Wasim Jaffer. Mumbai eventually won the Ranji Trophy 2012–13.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: He also played in the Irani Trophy for Mumbai, where he scored 140* against Rest of India and helped Mumbai to score 409 in reply to Rest of India's 526. This was also his 81st hundred in first-class cricket, equalling Sunil Gavaskar's Indian record for most first-class hundreds.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Following poor performance in the 2012 series against England, Tendulkar announced his retirement from One Day Internationals on 23 December 2012, while noting that he will be available for Test cricket. In response to the news, former India captain Sourav Ganguly noted that Tendulkar could have played the up-coming series against Pakistan, while Anil Kumble said it would be "tough to see an Indian (ODI) team list without Tendulkar's name in it", and Javagal Srinath mentioned that Tendulkar "changed the way ODIs were played right from the time he opened in New Zealand in 1994".


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: After playing a Twenty20 International in 2006 against South Africa, he said that he would not play the format again. He announced his retirement from the IPL after his team, Mumbai Indians, beat Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on 26 May to win the Indian Premier League 2013. He retired from Twenty20 cricket and limited-overs cricket, after playing the 2013 Champions League Twenty20 in September–October 2013 in India for Mumbai Indians.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: On 10 October 2013 Tendulkar announced that he would retire from all cricket after the two-Test series against West Indies in November. At his request, the BCCI arranged that the two matches be played at Kolkata and Mumbai so that the farewell would happen at his home ground. He scored 74 runs in his last Test innings against West Indies, thus failing short by 79 runs to complete 16,000 runs in Test cricket, the next man to bat after him was the future captain Virat Kohli. The Cricket Association of Bengal and the Mumbai Cricket Association organised events to mark his retirement from the sport. Various national and international figures from cricket, politics, Bollywood and other fields spoke about him in a day-long "Salaam Sachin Conclave" organised by "India Today".


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In December 2014, he was announced ambassador of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 event. It is his second term as he has already held the ambassador of the previous ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. He got the ambassador position of the ICC Cricket world cup in consecutive terms of the cricket world cup (2011 and 2015).


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar organised exhibition cricket matches in partnership with former Aussie cricketer Shane Warne. Cricket All-Stars held in USA in baseball stadiums and had retired players, some of them was Sourav Ganguly, Shoaib Akhtar, Wasim Akram.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: He captained the India legends team to victory in the 2020–21 Road Safety World Series and was the leading run scorer for the Indian team in the tournament.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: He acted as a coach for the Ponting XI during The Big Appeal. During the innings break, he batted an over against Ellyse Perry and Annabel Sutherland at Perry's request.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar was made the Icon player and captain for his home side, the Mumbai Indians in the inaugural Indian Premier League Twenty20 competition in 2008. As an icon player, he was signed for a sum of US$1,121,250, 15% more than the second-highest paid player in the team, Sanath Jayasuriya.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In 2010 edition of Indian Premier League, Mumbai Indians reached the final of the tournament. Tendulkar made 618 runs in 14 innings during the tournament, breaking Shaun Marsh's record of most runs in an IPL season. He was declared player of the tournament for his performance during the season. He also won Best Batsman and Best Captain awards at 2010 IPL Awards ceremony. Sachin has scored more than 500 runs in IPL in two different seasons as a captain.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Sachin Tendulkar captained Mumbai Indians in 4 league matches of second edition of the league. He scored 68 in the first match and 48 against Guyana. But Mumbai Indians failed to qualify for semifinals after losing the initial two matches. Tendulkar scored 135 runs.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In the 2011 IPL, against Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Tendulkar scored his maiden Twenty20 hundred. He scored 100 not out off 66 balls. In 2013, Sachin retired from Indian Premier League and in 2014 he was appointed as the Mumbai Indian's "Team Icon". His last match for the team was the


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: final of the 2013 Champions League, where he scored 14 runs in an Indians victory. In his 78 matches in the IPL, Tendulkar scored a total of 2,334 runs; at the time of his retirement he was the fifth-highest run-scorer in the competition's history. Mumbai Indians retired his number 10 jersey as a tribute to Tendulkar.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar is cross-dominant: he bats, bowls and throws with his right hand, but writes with his left hand. He also practices left-handed throws at the nets on a regular basis. Cricinfo columnist Sambit Bal has described him as the "most wholesome batsman of his time". His batting is based on complete balance and poise while limiting unnecessary movements and flourishes. He appears to show little preference for the slow and low wickets which are typical in India, and has scored many centuries on the hard, bouncy pitches in South Africa and Australia. He is known for his unique punch style of hitting the ball over square. He is also renowned for his picture-perfect straight drive, often completed with no follow-through. The straight drive is often said to be his favourite shot. In 2008, Sunil Gavaskar, in an article he wrote in the AFP, remarked that "it is hard to imagine any player in the history of the game who combines classical technique with raw aggression like the little champion does". Equipment-wise, his bats tend to be heavier than the average batman.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Sir Donald Bradman, considered by many as the greatest batsman of all time, considered Tendulkar to have a batting style similar to his. In his biography, it is stated that "Bradman was most taken by Tendulkar's technique, compactness and shot production, and had asked his wife to have a look at Tendulkar, having felt that Tendulkar played like him. Bradman's wife, Jessie, agreed that they did appear similar."


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Former Australian cricket team coach John Buchanan voiced his opinion that Tendulkar had become susceptible to the short ball early in his innings because of a lack of footwork. Buchanan also believes Tendulkar has a weakness while playing left-arm pace. He was affected by a series of injuries since 2004. Since then Tendulkar's batting has tended to be less attacking. Explaining this change in his batting style, he has acknowledged that he is batting differently because, firstly, no batsman can bat the same way for the entire length of a long career and, secondly, he is a senior member of the team now and thus has more responsibility. During the early part of his career, he was a more attacking batsman and frequently scored centuries at close to a run a ball. Ian Chappell, former Australian player, remarked in 2007 that "Tendulkar now, is nothing like the player he was when he was a young bloke".


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar has incorporated several modern and unorthodox strokes into his repertoire, including the paddle sweep, the scoop over short fine leg and the slash to third man over the slips' heads, especially in his later years. He is often praised for his ability to adapt to the needs of his body and yet keep scoring consistently.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: While Tendulkar was not a regular bowler, he could bowl medium pace, leg spin, and off spin. He often bowled when two batsmen of the opposite team had been batting together for a long period, as he could often be a useful partnership breaker. With his bowling, he helped secure an Indian victory on more than one occasion. He took 201 international wickets—46 in Tests, 154 in ODIs where he is India's twelfth-highest wicket taker, and one wicket in Twenty20 Internationals.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar's consistent performances earned him a fan following across the globe, including amongst Australian crowds, where Tendulkar has consistently scored centuries. One of the most popular sayings by his fans is "Cricket is my religion and Sachin is my God". "Cricinfo" mentions in his profile that "... Tendulkar remains, by a distance, the most worshipped cricketer in the world."


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: During the Australian tour of India in 1998 Matthew Hayden said "I have seen God. He bats at no. 4 in India in Tests." However, on God, Tendulkar himself is reported to have said "I am not God of cricket. I make mistakes, God doesn't." Tendulkar made a special appearance in the Bollywood film "Stumped" in 2003, appearing as himself.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: On 24 February 2010, "Cricinfo" site could not handle the heavy traffic experienced after Tendulkar broke the record for the highest individual male score in a One Day International match against South Africa, also becoming the first player to score 200* in the history of ODIs as more than 5 million fans visited the website at a time.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: There have been many instances when Tendulkar's fans have undertaken extreme activities over his dismissal in the game. As reported by many Indian newspapers, a young man hanged himself due to distress over Tendulkar's failure to reach his 100th century.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: At home in Mumbai, Tendulkar's fan following has caused him to lead a different lifestyle. Ian Chappell has said that he would be unable to cope with the lifestyle Tendulkar was forced to lead, having to "wear a wig and go out and watch a movie only at night". In an interview with Tim Sheridan, Tendulkar admitted that he sometimes went for quiet drives in the streets of Mumbai late at night when he would be able to enjoy some peace and silence. Tendulkar has had a presence in the popular social networking site Twitter with the user name since May 2010.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In 2015 he was appointed by BCCI into the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC). He was one of three in the committee along VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly. He resigned from this job after allegations of conflict of interest on him. CAC was formed by BCCI to appoint a head coach for Indian cricket team. On 23 June 2016, CAC appointed Anil Kumble as national team's head coach.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar is the leading run scorer in Tests, with 15,921 runs, as well as in One-Day Internationals, with 18,426 runs. He is the only player to score more than 30,000 runs in all forms of international cricket (Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 Internationals). He is the 16th player and the first Indian to score 50,000 runs in all forms of domestic and international recognised cricket (First-class, List A and Twenty20). He achieved this feat on 5 October 2013, during a Champions League Twenty20 match for his IPL team Mumbai Indians against Trinidad and Tobago.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: He also holds the record of the highest number of centuries in both Tests (51) and ODIs (49) as well as in Tests and ODIs combined (100). On 16 March 2012, Tendulkar scored his 100th international hundred. It came against Bangladesh in the league matches of Asia Cup 2012. He is also the only player to score fifty centuries in Test cricket, and the first to score fifty centuries in all international cricket combined. He also holds the world record for playing the highest number of Test matches (200) and ODI matches (463). Tendulkar has been part of most wins by an Indian in both Test cricket with 72 wins and ODIs with 234 wins and is third in the world in ODI victories after Ricky Ponting (262 wins), Mahela Jayawardene (241 wins).


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar has scored over 1,000 runs in a calendar year in ODIs 7 times, and in 1998 he scored 1,894 runs, the record for the highest number of runs scored by any player in a single calendar year for One-Day Internationals. He is the first male cricketer to score a double-century in one-day cricket.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: He has been Man of the Match 13 times in Test matches and Man of the Series four times, out of them twice in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. The performances earned him respect from Australian cricket fans and players. Similarly he has been Man of the Match 62 times in One day International matches and Man of the Series 15 times. He became the first batsman to score 12,000, 13,000, 14,000 and 15,000 runs in Test cricket, having also been the third batsman and the first Indian to pass 11,000 runs in that form of the game. He was also the first player to score 10,000 runs in one-day internationals, and also the first player to cross every subsequent 1,000-run mark that has been crossed in ODI cricket history. In the fourth Test of the 2008–09 Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia at Nagpur on 6 November 2008, Tendulkar surpassed Australia's Allan Border to become the player to cross the 50-run mark the most times in Test cricket history, and also the second ever player to score 11 Test centuries against Australia, tying with Sir Jack Hobbs of England more than 70 years previously. On 8 November 2011, Tendulkar became the first batsman to score 15,000 runs in Test Cricket.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar has consistently done well in Cricket World Cups. He was the highest run scorer of the 1996 Cricket World Cup with a total of 523 runs and also of the 2003 Cricket World Cup with 673 runs. After his century against England during group stages of 2011 Cricket World Cup, he became the player to hit most centuries in Cricket World Cups with six centuries and the first player to score 2000 runs in World Cup cricket.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar was also one half of the most prolific Test cricket partnership to date, alongside Rahul Dravid. Batting together, they scored 6920 runs for India at a partnership average of over fifty runs.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: On 24 May 1995, Tendulkar married Anjali Mehta (b. 1967), a paediatrician of Gujarati origin, whom he had first met in 1990; his wife became a full time housewife following their marriage. They have a daughter Sara and a son Arjun. Tendulkar lives in a bungalow in the Mumbai suburb of Bandra.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar is a Hindu. He is a devotee of the deity Ganesha and of the guru Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi, whom he visited for the first time in 1997. The death of Sai Baba on Tendulkar's 38th birthday caused him to cancel his celebrations.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar's popularity has led him to be a pioneer in India on cricket business dealings when he signed a record sports management deal with WorldTel in 1995, the value of the deal being over five years. His next contract with WorldTel in 2001 was valued at over five years. In 2006, he signed a contract with Saatchi and Saatchi's ICONIX valued at over three years.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar has opened two restaurants: "Tendulkar's" (Colaba, Mumbai) and "Sachin's" (Mulund, Mumbai) and Bangalore. Tendulkar owns these restaurants in partnership with Sanjay Narang of Mars Restaurants.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar co-owned the Kerala Blasters FC in the Indian Super League Football in association with PVP Ventures owned by Prasad V. Potluri till 2017. The team has been named as Kerala Blasters after his nickname "Master Blaster". He also jointly owns the badminton team Bengaluru Blasters which participates in the Premier Badminton League.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In 2013, Tendulkar was listed at 51st position in Forbes' list of world's highest-paid athletes, with his total earnings estimated to be US$22 million. In October 2013, the net worth of Tendulkar was estimated at US$160 million by Wealth-X, making him India's wealthiest cricket player.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: He started Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar Sports Management Pvt Ltd', sports management organisation. It manages all social and commercial work of Tendulkar.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In April 2012, Tendulkar accepted the Rajya Sabha nomination proposed by the President of India and became the first active sportsperson and cricketer to have been nominated as Member of Parliament (MP). He took the oath of office on 4 June. He refused to take the bungalow allotted to him in New Delhi calling it "waste of taxpayers' money" as he resides in Mumbai. He met with controversy over his absence in Rajya Sabha proceedings. In 2019, Tendulkar contributed Rs. 22 lakh from his Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) funds allotted to him during his stint as Rajya Sabha MP for the renovation of a Children's Park in East Bandra. In the past six years as a Rajya Sabha MP, Sachin had drawn nearly Rs 90 lakh in salaries and other monthly allowances. He donated this entire salary and allowances to the Prime Minister Relief Fund. The PMO has also issued a letter of acknowledgement which states: "Prime Minister acknowledges this thoughtful gesture and conveys his gratitude. These contributions will be of immense help in providing assistance to the persons in distress.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In 2016, when Tendulkar was a Rajya Sabha MP, on the request letter for fund from a school, "Swarnamoyee Sasmal Shiksha Niketan" of West Midnapore, West Bengal, Tendulkar released 70-76 lakh rupees from his Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme fund to the school.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: As a member of parliament in Rajya Sabha, Tendulkar was one of the worst performers. he remained absent from the parliament's discussions sessions most of the times and was one of the least present MP among nominated MPs. He faced criticism for absence from house. Fellow MPs from various parties as well as nominated MPs criticized Tendulkar for absence and asked question, 'why the nominated MPs Tendulkar and Rekha not coming to the parliament?'. According to the Hindustan Times's report dated 24 July 2014, he didn't spend a penny of his 15 crore MP Local Area Development Scheme fund for public welfare. In defence Tendulkar said that he was absent because of personal issues. Tendulkar was nominated in April 2013, in first year he did not attended a single day of budget or winter session, attendance on monsoon session was 5%. In his career as MP he asked 22 questions and did not participated in any debates. He was part of the Standing Committee on Information Technology. Overall his attendance in his six years term was merely 8%.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar has been associated with UNICEF. He lent his support to spread AIDS awareness World AIDS Day. In 2003, he worked for UNICEF's initiative to spread awareness about Polio disease and promote Polio prevention in India. Since 2008 he is involved in UNICEF's initiative to create and promote hygiene and sanitation.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: He was one of the first nine celebrities appointed by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spread awareness regarding cleanliness and make Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission) a people's movement. The cricketer accepted the nomination and posted a video of sweeping a street with his friends in Mumbai. In 2017, he helped sanitation workers to clean the Bandra Fort to contribute in "Swachhata Hi Seva" (cleanliness is service) campaign of clean India movement and to spread awareness and encourage people for this Clean India movement. In 2019, he was awarded the most effective "Swachhta" () Ambassador by India Today Group's fifth edition of "Safaigiri" () awards for using his popularity and fame to promote cleanliness and ensure the country achieves its goal of a "Swachh Bharat". On the occasion of the World Nature Conservation Day 2020, the cricketer took to twitter to spread message about the preservation of biodiversity.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Tendulkar sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year through Apnalaya, a Mumbai-based NGO associated with his mother-in-law, Annabel Mehta. A request by him on Twitter raised through Sachin's crusade against cancer for the Crusade Against Cancer Foundation. Sachin Tendulkar spent nine hours on the 12-hour "Coca-Cola-NDTV Support My School telethon" on 18 September 2011 that helped raise to more than the target—for the creation of basic facilities, particularly toilets for girl students, in 140 government schools across the country.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: 8 February 2020, he played in a charity match organised in Australia to raise fund for Australian bushfire victims. The match named as 'Bushfire Cricket Bash'.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In March 2020, he donated 25 lakh rupees to the Prime Minister Relief Fund and 25 lakh rupees for Chief Minister Relief Fund of Maharashtra in the initial months of COVID-19 spread. He was one of the first few sportspersons of India who came forward to donate money to relieve the COVID-19 pandemic in India.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: On 15 June 2021, on the occasion of World Blood Donor Day, he donated blood in a hospital and used social media to appeal people to donate blood. He urged everyone who can to donate blood to do so, and he asked to spread awareness for blood donation.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: On 29 April 2021, during second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, he donated 1 crore rupees to buy oxygen concentrator devices. He donated to a Mission Oxygen group, who have set up a fundraising initiative to import Oxygen concentrator devices and donate it to the hospitals all over the India.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In November 2021, he donated retinal cameras to a hospital in Assam of Northeast India. This device can be used to diagnose Retinopathy of prematurity.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Amid COVID-19 outbreak he provided undisclosed amount to 4000 underprivileged peoples including children's of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation schools.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography, "Playing It My Way", was released on 6 November 2014. It was listed in the 2016 Limca Book of Records for breaking the record for adult hardback pre-publication orders, with 150,289. It was written by a ghostwriter Boria Majumdar.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: In October 2021, Sachin Tendulkar was named in the Pandora Papers leak. His representatives, however, stated that Tendulkar's investments have been legitimate and fully taxed.


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: Sachin Tendulkar has been the subject of various books. The following is the listing of books focused on Tendulkar's career:


title: Sachin Tendulkar

text: A docudrama film was released in 2017 about Tendulkar, featuring interviews of number of former Cricket players and sports commentators. The film received mixed reviews.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Francis Zavier Ngannou (born 5 September 1986) is a Cameroonian professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Heavyweight division in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is the current UFC Heavyweight Champion. As of November 14, 2022, he is #5 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou was born and raised in the village of Batié, Cameroon. He lived in poverty and had little formal education growing up. Ngannou's parents divorced when he was six years old, and he was sent to live with his aunt. At 10 years old, Ngannou started working in a sand quarry in Batié because of a lack of funds. As a youngster, he was approached by several gangs in his village to join them. However, Ngannou refused and instead decided to use his father's negative reputation as a street fighter as motivation to do something positive and pursue boxing.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: At the age of 22, Ngannou began training in boxing, despite the initial reluctance of his family. After training for a year, Ngannou stopped training due to an illness. He did various odd jobs to make ends meet, until at the age of 26, he decided to head to Paris, France, to pursue professional boxing. However upon reaching Europe, he was jailed for two months in Spain for illegally crossing the border. After Ngannou reached Paris, he had no money, no friends, and no place to live. After living homeless on the streets of Paris, he met Francis Carmont who introduced him to Fernand Lopez and the MMA factory. Being a fan of Mike Tyson, Ngannou was originally interested in learning how to box but Lopez saw his potential in MMA and convinced him to try MMA instead. Lopez gave Ngannou some MMA gear and allowed him to train and sleep at the gym for no cost thus starting Ngannou's MMA career.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou started his MMA career in November 2013 and fought mostly in the French promotion "100% Fight", as well as other regional promotions in Europe. He compiled a record of 5–1 before signing with the UFC.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou made his UFC debut against fellow newcomer Luis Henrique on 19 December 2015, at UFC on Fox 17. He won the fight via knockout in the second round.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou next faced UFC newcomer Curtis Blaydes on 10 April 2016, at UFC Fight Night 86. He won the fight via TKO, due to doctor stoppage at the end of the second round.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: In his next bout, Ngannou faced another newcomer in Bojan Mihajlović on 23 July 2016, at UFC on Fox 20. He won the fight via TKO in the first round. Ngannou then faced Anthony Hamilton on 9 December 2016, at UFC Fight Night 102. He won the fight by submission in the first round, and earned his first UFC "Performance of the Night" bonus.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou faced Andrei Arlovski on 28 January 2017, at UFC on Fox 23. He won the fight via TKO in the first round. The win also earned Ngannou his second "Performance of the Night" bonus.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou was expected to face Junior dos Santos on 9 September 2017, at UFC 215. However, on 18 August, Dos Santos was pulled from the match after being notified of a potential USADA violation. In turn, Ngannou was removed from the card after promotion officials deemed that a suitable opponent could not be arranged.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: In the highest profile fight of his career, Ngannou faced veteran Alistair Overeem on 2 December 2017, at UFC 218. He won the fight via knockout in the first round. This knockout has been labeled as one of the greatest and most brutal knockouts of all time. Following the bout, Ngannou signed a new, eight-fight contract with the UFC.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou faced Stipe Miocic for the UFC Heavyweight Championship on 20 January 2018, at UFC 220. He lost the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou faced Derrick Lewis on 7 July 2018, at UFC 226. He lost the fight via unanimous decision. The fight was heavily criticized by the media and the fans for the lack of offence from both competitors and was labeled as a "snoozefest".


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou faced Curtis Blaydes in a rematch on 24 November 2018, in the main event at UFC Fight Night 141 He won the fight via TKO early into the first round. The win also earned him a "Performance of the Night" bonus.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou headlined the UFC's inaugural event on ESPN, against Cain Velasquez on 17 February 2019. He won the fight via knockout in the first round.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou faced Junior dos Santos on 29 June 2019, at UFC on ESPN 3. He won the fight via technical knockout in the first round. This fight earned him the "Performance of the Night" award.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou was scheduled to face Jairzinho Rozenstruik on 28 March 2020, at . Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was eventually postponed . The pair was rescheduled to meet at 18 April 2020, at UFC 249. However, on 9 April, Dana White, the president of the UFC announced that the event was postponed and the bout eventually took place on 9 May 2020. Ngannou won via knockout just 20 seconds into the first round. This win earned him the "Performance of the Night "award.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: A rematch of the bout between Miocic and Ngannou for the UFC Heavyweight Championship took place on 27 March 2021, at UFC 260. Ngannou won the fight via knockout in the second round. This win earned him the "Performance of the Night" award.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou faced the Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion Ciryl Gane for his first title defense on 22 January 2022, at UFC 270. He injured knee ligaments three and a half weeks before the fight. Ngannou won the fight by unanimous decision, the first decision win of his career.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: Ngannou speaks several languages including Ngemba, French, and English. He learned English after joining the UFC.


title: Francis Ngannou

text: The Francis Ngannou Foundation runs the first MMA gym in Cameroon, aiming to offer facilities for young people to have a place to train.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Although it does not border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres (660 feet) of the Botswanan right bank of the Zambezi River separates the two countries. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the Commonwealth of Nations.


title: Namibia

text: The driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia has been inhabited since pre-historic times by the San, Damara and Nama people. Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. Since then, the Bantu groups, the largest being the Ovambo, have dominated the population of the country; since the late 19th century, they have constituted a majority. Today Namibia is one of the least densely populated countries in the world.


title: Namibia

text: It has a population of 2.55 million people and is a stable multi-party parliamentary democracy. Agriculture, tourism and the mining industry – including mining for gem diamonds, uranium, gold, silver and base metals – form the basis of its economy, while the manufacturing sector is comparatively small.


title: Namibia

text: In 1884, the German Empire established rule over most of the territory, forming a colony known as German South West Africa. Between 1904 and 1908, it perpetrated a genocide against the Herero and Nama people. German rule ended in 1915 with a defeat by South African forces. In 1920, after the end of World War I, the League of Nations mandated administration of the colony to South Africa. As mandatory power, South Africa imposed its laws, including racial classifications and rules. From 1948, with the National Party elected to power, this included South Africa applying apartheid to what was then known as South West Africa. In the later 20th century, uprisings and demands for political representation by native African political activists seeking independence resulted in the UN assuming direct responsibility over the territory in 1966, but the country of South Africa maintained rule. In 1973, the UN recognised the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) as the official representative of the Namibian people. Following continued guerrilla warfare, Namibia obtained independence in 1990. However, Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands remained under South African control until 1994.


title: Namibia

text: The name of the country is derived from the Namib desert, the oldest desert in the world. The name "Namib" itself is of Nama origin and means "vast place". That word for the country was chosen by Mburumba Kerina, who originally proposed the name the "Republic of Namib". Before its independence in 1990, the area was known first as German South-West Africa ("Deutsch-Südwestafrika"), then as South-West Africa, reflecting the colonial occupation by the Germans and South Africans.


title: Namibia

text: The dry lands of Namibia have been inhabited since prehistoric times by the San, Damara, and Nama. Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu people began to arrive during the Bantu expansion from central Africa.


title: Namibia

text: From the late 18th century onward, Oorlam people from Cape Colony crossed the Orange River and moved into the area that today is southern Namibia. Their encounters with the nomadic Nama tribes were largely peaceful. They received the missionaries accompanying the Oorlam very well, granting them the right to use waterholes and grazing against an annual payment. On their way further north, however, the Oorlam encountered clans of the OvaHerero at Windhoek, Gobabis, and Okahandja, who resisted their encroachment. The Nama-Herero War broke out in 1880, with hostilities ebbing only after the German Empire deployed troops to the contested places and cemented the status quo among the Nama, Oorlam, and Herero.


title: Namibia

text: In 1878, the Cape of Good Hope, then a British colony, annexed the port of Walvis Bay and the offshore Penguin Islands; these became an integral part of the new Union of South Africa at its creation in 1910.


title: Namibia

text: The first Europeans to disembark and explore the region were the Portuguese navigators Diogo Cão in 1485 and Bartolomeu Dias in 1486, but the Portuguese did not try to claim the area. Like most of the interior of Sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia was not extensively explored by Europeans until the 19th century. At that time traders and settlers came principally from Germany and Sweden. In the late 19th century, Dorsland Trekkers crossed the area on their way from the Transvaal to Angola. Some of them settled in Namibia instead of continuing their journey.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia became a German colony in 1884 under Otto von Bismarck to forestall perceived British encroachment and was known as German South West Africa ("Deutsch-Südwestafrika"). The Palgrave Commission by the British governor in Cape Town determined that only the natural deep-water harbour of Walvis Bay was worth occupying and thus annexed it to the Cape province of British South Africa.


title: Namibia

text: From 1904 to 1907, the Herero and the Namaqua took up arms against brutal German colonialism. In a calculated punitive action by the German occupiers, government officials ordered the extinction of the natives in the OvaHerero and Namaqua genocide. In what has been called the "first genocide of the 20th century", the Germans systematically killed 10,000 Nama (half the population) and approximately 65,000 Herero (about 80% of the population). The survivors, when finally released from detention, were subjected to a policy of dispossession, deportation, forced labour, racial segregation, and discrimination in a system that in many ways foreshadowed the apartheid established by South Africa in 1948.


title: Namibia

text: Most Africans were confined to so-called native territories, which under South African rule after 1949 were turned into "homelands" (Bantustans). Some historians have speculated that the German genocide in Namibia was a model for the Nazis in the Holocaust. The memory of genocide remains relevant to ethnic identity in independent Namibia and to relations with Germany. The German government formally apologised for the Namibian genocide in 2004.


title: Namibia

text: During World War I, South African troops under General Louis Botha occupied the territory and deposed the German colonial administration. The end of the war and the Treaty of Versailles resulted in South West Africa remaining a possession of South Africa, at first as a League of Nations mandate, until 1990. The mandate system was formed as a compromise between those who advocated for an Allied annexation of former German and Ottoman territories and a proposition put forward by those who wished to grant them to an international trusteeship until they could govern themselves. It permitted the South African government to administer South West Africa until that territory's inhabitants were prepared for political self-determination. South Africa interpreted the mandate as a veiled annexation and made no attempt to prepare South West Africa for future autonomy.


title: Namibia

text: As a result of the Conference on International Organization in 1945, the League of Nations was formally superseded by the United Nations (UN) and former League mandates by a trusteeship system. Article 77 of the United Nations Charter stated that UN trusteeship "shall apply...to territories now held under mandate"; furthermore, it would "be a matter of subsequent agreement as to which territories in the foregoing territories will be brought under the trusteeship system and under what terms". The UN requested all former League of Nations mandates be surrendered to its Trusteeship Council in anticipation of their independence. South Africa declined to do so and instead requested permission from the UN to formally annex South West Africa, for which it received considerable criticism. When the UN General Assembly rejected this proposal, South Africa dismissed its opinion and began solidifying control of the territory. The UN Generally Assembly and Security Council responded by referring the issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which held a number of discussions on the legality of South African rule between 1949 and 1966.


title: Namibia

text: South Africa began imposing "apartheid," its codified system of racial segregation and discrimination, on South West Africa during the late 1940s. Black South West Africans were subject to pass laws, curfews, and a host of residential regulations that restricted their movement. Development was concentrated in the southern region of the territory adjacent to South Africa, known as the "Police Zone", where most of the major settlements and commercial economic activity were located. Outside the Police Zone, indigenous peoples were restricted to theoretically self-governing tribal homelands.


title: Namibia

text: During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the accelerated decolonisation of Africa and mounting pressure on the remaining colonial powers to grant their colonies self-determination resulted in the formation of nascent nationalist parties in South West Africa. Movements such as the South West African National Union (SWANU) and the South West African People's Organisation advocated for the formal termination of South Africa's mandate and independence for the territory. In 1966, following the ICJ's controversial ruling that it had no legal standing to consider the question of South African rule, SWAPO launched an armed insurgency that escalated into part of a wider regional conflict known as the South African Border War.


title: Namibia

text: As SWAPO's insurgency intensified, South Africa's case for annexation in the international community continued to decline. The UN declared that South Africa had failed in its obligations to ensure the moral and material well-being of South West Africa's indigenous inhabitants, and had thus disavowed its own mandate. On 12 June 1968, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming that, in accordance with the desires of its people, South West Africa be renamed "Namibia". United Nations Security Council Resolution 269, adopted in August 1969, declared South Africa's continued occupation of Namibia illegal. In recognition of this landmark decision, SWAPO's armed wing was renamed the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN).


title: Namibia

text: Namibia became one of several flashpoints for Cold War proxy conflicts in southern Africa during the latter years of the PLAN insurgency. The insurgents sought out weapons and sent recruits to the Soviet Union for military training. As the PLAN war effort gained momentum, the Soviet Union and other sympathetic states such as Cuba continued to increase their support, deploying advisers to train the insurgents directly as well as supplying more weapons and ammunition. SWAPO's leadership, dependent on Soviet, Angolan, and Cuban military aid, positioned the movement firmly within the socialist bloc by 1975. This practical alliance reinforced the prevailing perspective of SWAPO as a Soviet proxy, which dominated Cold War ideology in South Africa and the United States. For its part, the Soviet Union supported SWAPO partly because it viewed South Africa as a regional Western ally.


title: Namibia

text: Growing war weariness and the reduction of tensions between the superpowers compelled South Africa, Angola, and Cuba to accede to the Tripartite Accord, under pressure from both the Soviet Union and the United States. South Africa accepted Namibian independence in exchange for Cuban military withdrawal from the region and an Angolan commitment to cease all aid to PLAN. PLAN and South Africa adopted an informal ceasefire in August 1988, and a United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was formed to monitor the Namibian peace process and supervise the return of refugees. The ceasefire was broken after PLAN made a final incursion into the territory, possibly as a result of misunderstanding UNTAG's directives, in March 1989. A new ceasefire was later imposed with the condition that the insurgents were to be confined to their external bases in Angola until they could be disarmed and demobilised by UNTAG.


title: Namibia

text: By the end of the 11-month transition period, the last South African troops had been withdrawn from Namibia, all political prisoners granted amnesty, racially discriminatory legislation repealed, and 42,000 Namibian refugees returned to their homes. Just over 97% of eligible voters participated in the country's first parliamentary elections held under a universal franchise. The United Nations plan included oversight by foreign election observers in an effort to ensure a free and fair election. SWAPO won a plurality of seats in the Constituent Assembly with 57% of the popular vote. This gave the party 41 seats, but not a two-thirds majority, which would have enabled it to draft the constitution on its own.


title: Namibia

text: The Namibian Constitution was adopted in February 1990. It incorporated protection for human rights and compensation for state expropriations of private property and established an independent judiciary, legislature, and an executive presidency (the constituent assembly became the national assembly). The country officially became independent on 21 March 1990. Sam Nujoma was sworn in as the first President of Namibia at a ceremony attended by Nelson Mandela of South Africa (who had been released from prison the previous month) and representatives from 147 countries, including 20 heads of state. In 1994, following the first multiracial elections in South Africa, that country ceded Walvis Bay to Namibia.


title: Namibia

text: Since independence Namibia has completed the transition from white minority apartheid rule to parliamentary democracy. Multiparty democracy was introduced and has been maintained, with local, regional and national elections held regularly. Several registered political parties are active and represented in the National Assembly, although the SWAPO has won every election since independence. The transition from the 15-year rule of President Nujoma to his successor Hifikepunye Pohamba in 2005 went smoothly.


title: Namibia

text: Since independence, the Namibian government has promoted a policy of national reconciliation. It issued an amnesty for those who fought on either side during the liberation war. The civil war in Angola spilled over and adversely affected Namibians living in the north of the country. In 1998, Namibia Defence Force (NDF) troops were sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) contingent.


title: Namibia

text: In 1999, the national government quashed a secessionist attempt in the northeastern Caprivi Strip. The Caprivi conflict was initiated by the Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA), a rebel group led by Mishake Muyongo. It wanted the Caprivi Strip to secede and form its own society.


title: Namibia

text: In December 2014, Prime Minister Hage Geingob, the candidate of ruling SWAPO, won the presidential elections, taking 87% of the vote. His predecessor, President Hifikepunye Pohamba, also of SWAPO, had served the maximum two terms allowed by the constitution. In December 2019, President Hage Geingob was re-elected for a second term, taking 56.3% of the vote.


title: Namibia

text: At , Namibia is the world's thirty-fourth largest country (after Venezuela). It lies mostly between latitudes 17° and 29°S (a small area is north of 17°), and longitudes 11° and 26°E.


title: Namibia

text: Being situated between the Namib and the Kalahari deserts, Namibia has the least rainfall of any country in sub-Saharan Africa.


title: Namibia

text: The Namibian landscape consists generally of five geographical areas, each with characteristic abiotic conditions and vegetation, with some variation within and overlap between them: the Central Plateau, the Namib, the Great Escarpment, the Bushveld, and the Kalahari Desert.


title: Namibia

text: The Central Plateau runs from north to south, bordered by the Skeleton Coast to the northwest, the Namib Desert and its coastal plains to the southwest, the Orange River to the south, and the Kalahari Desert to the east. The Central Plateau is home to the highest point in Namibia at Königstein elevation .


title: Namibia

text: The Namib is a broad expanse of hyper-arid gravel plains and dunes that stretches along Namibia's entire coastline. It varies between in width. Areas within the Namib include the Skeleton Coast and the Kaokoveld in the north and the extensive Namib Sand Sea along the central coast.


title: Namibia

text: The Great Escarpment swiftly rises to over . Average temperatures and temperature ranges increase further inland from the cold Atlantic waters, while the lingering coastal fogs slowly diminish. Although the area is rocky with poorly developed soils, it is significantly more productive than the Namib Desert. As summer winds are forced over the Escarpment, moisture is extracted as precipitation.


title: Namibia

text: The Bushveld is found in north-eastern Namibia along the Angolan border and in the Caprivi Strip. The area receives a significantly greater amount of precipitation than the rest of the country, averaging around per year. The area is generally flat and the soils sandy, limiting their ability to retain water and support agriculture.


title: Namibia

text: The Kalahari Desert, an arid region that extends into South Africa and Botswana, is one of Namibia's well-known geographical features. The Kalahari, while popularly known as a desert, has a variety of localised environments, including some verdant and technically non-desert areas. The Succulent Karoo is home to over 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them endemic; approximately 10 percent of the world's succulents are found in the Karoo. The reason behind this high productivity and endemism may be the relatively stable nature of precipitation.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia's Coastal Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world. Its sand dunes, created by the strong onshore winds, are the highest in the world. Because of the location of the shoreline, at the point where the Atlantic's cold water reaches Africa's hot climate, often extremely dense fog forms along the coast. Near the coast there are areas where the dune-hummocks are vegetated. Namibia has rich coastal and marine resources that remain largely unexplored.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia extends from 17°S to 25°S latitude: climatically the range of the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt. Its overall climate description is arid, descending from the Sub-Humid [mean rain above ] through Semi-Arid [between ] (embracing most of the waterless Kalahari) and Arid [from ] (these three regions are inland from the western escarpment) to the Hyper-Arid coastal plain [less than ]. Temperature maxima are limited by the overall elevation of the entire region: only in the far south, Warmbad for instance, are maxima above recorded.


title: Namibia

text: Typically the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt, with frequent clear skies, provides more than 300 days of sunshine per year. It is situated at the southern edge of the tropics; the Tropic of Capricorn cuts the country about in half. The winter (June – August) is generally dry. Both rainy seasons occur in summer: the small rainy season between September and November, the big one between February and April. Humidity is low, and average rainfall varies from almost zero in the coastal desert to more than in the Caprivi Strip. Rainfall is highly variable, and droughts are common. In the summer of 2006/07 the rainfall was recorded far below the annual average. In May 2019, Namibia declared a state of emergency in response to the drought, and extended it by additional 6 months in October 2019.


title: Namibia

text: Weather and climate in the coastal area are dominated by the cold, north-flowing Benguela Current of the Atlantic Ocean, which accounts for very low precipitation ( per year or less), frequent dense fog, and overall lower temperatures than in the rest of the country. In Winter, occasionally a condition known as ' (German for "mountain wind") or ' (Afrikaans for "east weather") occurs, a hot dry wind blowing from the inland to the coast. As the area behind the coast is a desert, these winds can develop into sand storms, leaving sand deposits in the Atlantic Ocean that are visible on satellite images.


title: Namibia

text: "Efundja", the annual seasonal flooding of the northern parts of the country, often causes not only damage to infrastructure but loss of life. The rains that cause these floods originate in Angola, flow into Namibia's Cuvelai-Etosha Basin, and fill the "oshanas" (Oshiwambo: flood plains) there. The worst floods occurred in March 2011 and displaced 21,000 people.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa and depends largely on groundwater. With an average rainfall of about per annum, the highest rainfall occurs in the Caprivi in the northeast (about per annum) and decreases in a westerly and southwesterly direction to as little as and less per annum at the coast. The only perennial rivers are found on the national borders with South Africa, Angola, Zambia, and the short border with Botswana in the Caprivi. In the interior of the country, surface water is available only in the summer months when rivers are in flood after exceptional rainfalls. Otherwise, surface water is restricted to a few large storage dams retaining and damming up these seasonal floods and their run-off. Where people do not live near perennial rivers or make use of the storage dams, they are dependent on groundwater. Even isolated communities and those economic activities located far from good surface water sources, such as mining, agriculture, and tourism, can be supplied from groundwater over nearly 80% of the country.


title: Namibia

text: More than 100,000 boreholes have been drilled in Namibia over the past century. One third of these boreholes have been drilled dry. An aquifer called Ohangwena II, on both sides of the Angola-Namibia border, was discovered in 2012. It has been estimated to be capable of supplying a population of 800,000 people in the North for 400 years, at the current (2018) rate of consumption. Experts estimate that Namibia has of underground water.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia is one of few countries in the world to specifically address conservation and protection of natural resources in its constitution. Article 95 states, "The State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people by adopting international policies aimed at the following: maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes, and biological diversity of Namibia, and utilisation of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future."


title: Namibia

text: In 1993, Namibia's newly formed government received funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Living in a Finite Environment (LIFE) Project. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism, with financial support from organisations such as USAID, Endangered Wildlife Trust, WWF, and Canadian Ambassador's Fund, together form a Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) support structure. The project's main goal is to promote sustainable natural resource management by giving local communities rights to wildlife management and tourism.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia is a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic. The President of Namibia is elected to a five-year term and is both the head of state and the head of government. All members of the government are individually and collectively responsible to the legislature.


title: Namibia

text: While the constitution envisaged a multi-party system for Namibia's government, the SWAPO party has been dominant since independence in 1990.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia has a largely independent foreign policy, with persisting affiliations with states that aided the independence struggle, including Cuba. With a small army and a fragile economy, the Namibian government's principal foreign policy concern is developing strengthened ties within the Southern African region. A dynamic member of the Southern African Development Community, Namibia is a vocal advocate for greater regional integration. It became the 160th member of the UN on 23 April 1990. On its independence it became the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations.


title: Namibia

text: In early 2020, The Global Firepower Index (GFP) reported that Namibia's military is ranked as one of the weakest in the world, at 126th out of 137 countries. Among 34 African countries, Namibia is also poorly ranked at the 28th position. Despite this, government spending for the Ministry of Defence stood at N$5,885 million (a 1.2% decrease from the previous financial year). With close to 6 billion Namibian dollars (US$411 million in 2021) the Ministry of Defence receives the fourth highest amount of money from Government per ministry.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia does not have any enemies in the region, though it has been involved in various disputes regarding borders and construction plans.


title: Namibia

text: The Namibian constitution defines the role of the military as ""defending the territory and national interests."" Namibia formed the Namibian Defence Force (NDF), comprising former enemies in a 23-year bush war: the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) and South West African "Territorial Force" (SWATF). The British formulated the plan for integrating these forces and began training the NDF, which consists of a small headquarters and five battalions.


title: Namibia

text: The United Nations Transitional Assistance Group (UNTAG)'s Kenyan infantry battalion remained in Namibia for three months after independence to help train the NDF and to stabilise the north. According to the Namibian Defence Ministry, enlistments of both men and women will number no more than 7,500.


title: Namibia

text: The chief of the Namibian Defence Force is Air Vice Marshal Martin Kambulu Pinehas (with effect from 1 April 2020).


title: Namibia

text: Namibia is divided into 14 regions which are subdivided into 121 constituencies. The administrative division of Namibia is tabled by "Delimitation Commissions" and accepted or declined by the National Assembly. Since state foundation four Delimitation Commissions have delivered their work, the last one in 2013 under the chairmanship of Judge Alfred Siboleka.


title: Namibia

text: Regional councillors are directly elected through secret ballots (regional elections) by the inhabitants of their constituencies.


title: Namibia

text: Local authorities in Namibia can be in the form of municipalities (either Part 1 or Part 2 municipalities), town councils or villages.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia is considered one of the most free and democratic countries in Africa, with a government that maintains and protects basic human rights and freedoms. However, significant issues include - Government Corruption and Prison Overcrowding. Also, refugees are not permitted free movement.


title: Namibia

text: The law is not enforced, but homosexual acts are illegal in Namibia. Discrimination, as well as intolerance, against LGBT people is widespread. Some Namibian government officials and high-profile figures, such as Namibia's Ombudsman John Walters and First Lady Monica Geingos, have called for sodomy and homosexuality to be decriminalised and are in favour of LGBT rights.


title: Namibia

text: In November 2018, it was reported that 32% of women aged 15–49 have experienced violence and domestic abuse from their spouses/partners and 29.5% of men believe that physical abuse towards their wife/partner is acceptable. The Namibian constitution guarantees the rights, freedoms and equal treatment of women in Namibia and SWAPO, the ruling party in Namibia, has adopted a "zebra system", which ensures a fair balance of both genders in government and equal representation of women in the Namibian government.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia's economy is tied closely to South Africa's due to their shared history. The largest economic sectors are mining (10.4% of the gross domestic product in 2009), agriculture (5.0%), manufacturing (13.5%), and tourism.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia has a highly developed banking sector with modern infrastructures, such as online banking and cellphone banking. The Bank of Namibia (BoN) is the central bank of Namibia responsible for performing all other functions ordinarily performed by a central bank. There are five BoN authorised commercial banks in Namibia: Bank Windhoek, First National Bank, Nedbank, Standard Bank and Small and Medium Enterprises Bank. Namibia's economy is characterised by a divide between the formal and the informal economies, which is in part aggravated by the legacy of Apartheid town planning.


title: Namibia

text: According to the Namibia Labour Force Survey Report 2012, conducted by the Namibia Statistics Agency, the country's unemployment rate is 27.4%. "Strict unemployment" (people actively seeking a full-time job) stood at 20.2% in 2000, 21.9% in 2004 and spiralled to 29.4% in 2008. Under a broader definition (including people who have given up searching for employment) unemployment rose to 36.7% in 2004. This estimate considers people in the informal economy as employed. Labour and Social Welfare Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko praised the 2008 study as "by far superior in scope and quality to any that has been available previously", but its methodology has also received criticism.


title: Namibia

text: In 2004 a labour act was passed to protect people from job discrimination stemming from pregnancy and HIV/AIDS status. In early 2010 the Government tender board announced that "henceforth 100 per cent of all unskilled and semi-skilled labour must be sourced, without exception, from within Namibia".


title: Namibia

text: In 2013, global business and financial news provider, Bloomberg, named Namibia the top emerging market economy in Africa and the 13th best in the world. Only four African countries made the Top 20 Emerging Markets list in the March 2013 issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine, and Namibia was rated ahead of Morocco (19th), South Africa (15th), and Zambia (14th). Worldwide, Namibia also fared better than Hungary, Brazil, and Mexico. Bloomberg Markets magazine ranked the top 20 based on more than a dozen criteria. The data came from Bloomberg's own financial-market statistics, IMF forecasts and the World Bank. The countries were also rated on areas of particular interest to foreign investors: the ease of doing business, the perceived level of corruption and economic freedom. To attract foreign investment, the government has made improvement in reducing red tape resulted from excessive government regulations, making Namibia one of the least bureaucratic places to do business in the region. Facilitation payments are occasionally demanded by customs due to cumbersome and costly customs procedures. Namibia is also classified as an Upper Middle Income country by the World Bank, and ranks 87th out of 185 economies in terms of ease of doing business.


title: Namibia

text: The cost of living in Namibia is relatively high because most goods, including cereals, need to be imported. Its capital city, Windhoek, is the 150th most expensive place in the world for expatriates to live.


title: Namibia

text: Taxation in Namibia includes personal income tax, which is applicable to the total taxable income of an individual. All individuals are taxed at progressive marginal rates over a series of income brackets. The value-added tax (VAT) is applicable to most of the commodities and services.


title: Namibia

text: Despite the remote nature of much of the country, Namibia has seaports, airports, highways, and railways (narrow-gauge). It seeks to become a regional transportation hub; it has an important seaport and several landlocked neighbours. The Central Plateau already serves as a transportation corridor from the more densely populated north to South Africa, the source of four-fifths of Namibia's imports.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia is a country with a substantial income disparity. The data indicates that the current income share held by the highest 10% is approximately 51.8%. An additional figure describes the poverty gap: people living on US$2 or less in the country are approximately 17.72% of the population.


title: Namibia

text: About half of the population depends on agriculture (largely subsistence agriculture) for its livelihood, but Namibia must still import some of its food. Although per capita GDP is five times the per capita GDP of Africa's poorest countries, the majority of Namibia's people live in rural areas and have a subsistence way of life. Namibia has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world, due in part to the fact that there is an urban economy and a more rural cashless economy. The inequality figures thus take into account people who do not actually rely on the formal economy for their survival. Although arable land accounts for <1% of Namibia, (about .97%), nearly half of the population is employed in agriculture.


title: Namibia

text: About 4,000, mostly white, commercial farmers own almost half of Namibia's arable land. The United Kingdom offered about $180,000 in 2004 to help finance Namibia's land reform process, as Namibia plans to start expropriating land from white farmers to resettle landless black Namibians. Germany has offered €1.1bn in 2021 over 30 years in reparations for the genocides in the early 20th century but the money will go towards infrastructure, healthcare and training programmes not land reform.


title: Namibia

text: An agreement has been reached on the privatisation of several more enterprises in coming years, with hopes that this will stimulate much needed foreign investment, but reinvestment of environmentally derived capital has hobbled Namibian per capita income. One of the fastest growing areas of economic development in Namibia is the growth of wildlife conservancies. These are particularly important to the rural, generally unemployed, population.


title: Namibia

text: Providing 25% of Namibia's revenue, mining is the single most important contributor to the economy. Namibia is the fourth largest exporter of non-fuel minerals in Africa and was the world's fourth largest producer of uranium. There have been significant investment in uranium mining and Namibia planned to become the largest exporter of uranium by 2015. However, as of 2019 Namibia continued to produce 750 tons Uranium annually making it a smaller than average exporter in the competitive world market. Rich alluvial diamond deposits make Namibia a primary source for gem-quality diamonds. While Namibia is known predominantly for its gem diamond and uranium deposits, a number of other minerals are extracted industrially such as lead, tungsten, gold, tin, fluorspar, manganese, marble, copper and zinc. There are offshore gas deposits in the Atlantic Ocean that are planned to be extracted in the future. According to "The Diamond Investigation", a book about the global diamond market, from 1978, De Beers, the largest diamond company, bought most of the Namibian diamonds, and would continue to do so, because "whatever government eventually comes to power they will need this revenue to survive".


title: Namibia

text: Domestic supply voltage is 220 V AC. Electricity is generated mainly by thermal and hydroelectric power plants. Non-conventional methods of electricity generation also play some role. Encouraged by the rich uranium deposits the Namibian government plans to erect its first nuclear power station by 2018, also uranium enrichment is envisaged to happen locally.


title: Namibia

text: Although much of the world's diamond supply comes from what have been called African blood diamonds, Namibia has managed to develop a diamond mining industry largely free of the kinds of conflict, extortion, and murder that have plagued many other African nations with diamond mines. This has been attributed to political dynamics, economic institutions, grievances, political geography, and the effects of neighbourhoods, and is the result of a joint agreement between the government and De Beers that has led to a taxable base, strengthening state institutions.


title: Namibia

text: Estimates updated in 2022 suggest that two exploration wells in the offshore Orange Basin could hold 2 and 3 billion barrels of oil, respectively. The expected revenue could transform Namibia's domestic economy and facilitate sustainable development goals.


title: Namibia

text: Tourism is a major contributor (14.5%) to Namibia's GDP, creating tens of thousands of jobs (18.2% of all employment) directly or indirectly and servicing over a million tourists per year. The country is a prime destination in Africa and is known for ecotourism, which features Namibia's extensive wildlife.


title: Namibia

text: There are many lodges and reserves to accommodate ecotourists. Sport and trophy hunting is also a large and growing component of the Namibian economy, accounting for 14% of total tourism in the year 2000, or 19.6 million U.S. dollars, with Namibia boasting numerous species sought after by international sport hunters.


title: Namibia

text: In addition, extreme sports such as sandboarding, skydiving and 4x4ing have become popular, and many cities have companies that provide tours. The most visited places include the capital city of Windhoek, Caprivi Strip, Fish River Canyon, Sossusvlei, the Skeleton Coast Park, Sesriem, Etosha Pan and the coastal towns of Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Lüderitz.


title: Namibia

text: Windhoek plays a very important role in Namibia's tourism due to its central location and close proximity to Hosea Kutako International Airport. According to The Namibia Tourism Exit Survey, which was produced by the Millennium Challenge Corporation for the Namibian Directorate of Tourism, 56% of all tourists visiting Namibia in 2012–13 visited Windhoek. Many of Namibia's tourism related parastatals and governing bodies such as Namibia Wildlife Resorts and the Namibia Tourism Board as well as Namibia's tourism-related trade associations such as the Hospitality Association of Namibia are headquartered in Windhoek. There are also a number of notable hotels in Windhoek, such as Windhoek Country Club Resort, and some international hotel chains, such as Hilton Hotels and Resorts.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia's primary tourism related governing body, the Namibia Tourism Board (NTB), was established by an Act of Parliament: the "Namibia Tourism Board Act, 2000" (Act 21 of 2000). Its primary objectives are to regulate the tourism industry and to market Namibia as a tourist destination. There are also a number of trade associations that represent the tourism sector in Namibia, such as the Federation of Namibia Tourism Associations (the umbrella body for all tourism associations in Namibia), the Hospitality Association of Namibia, the Association of Namibian Travel Agents, Car Rental Association of Namibia and the Tour and Safari Association of Namibia.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia is the only country in Sub-Saharan Africa to provide water through municipal departments. The only bulk water supplier in Namibia is NamWater, which sells it to the respective municipalities which in turn deliver it through their reticulation networks. In rural areas, the Directorate of Rural Water Supply in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry is in charge of drinking water supply.


title: Namibia

text: The UN evaluated in 2011 that Namibia has improved its water access network significantly since independence in 1990. A large part of the population can not, however, make use of these resources due to the prohibitively high consumption cost and the long distance between residences and water points in rural areas. As a result, many Namibians prefer the traditional wells over the available water points far away.


title: Namibia

text: Compared to the efforts made to improve access to safe water, Namibia is lagging behind in the provision of adequate sanitation. This includes 298 schools that have no toilet facilities. Over 50% of child deaths are related to lack of water, sanitation, or hygiene; 23% are due to diarrhoea alone. The UN has identified a "sanitation crisis" in the country.


title: Namibia

text: Apart from residences for upper and middle class households, sanitation is insufficient in most residential areas. Private flush toilets are too expensive for virtually all residents in townships due to their water consumption and installation cost. As a result, access to improved sanitation has not increased much since independence: in Namibia's rural areas 13% of the population had more than basic sanitation, up from 8% in 1990. Many of Namibia's inhabitants have to resort to "flying toilets", plastic bags to defecate into, which after use are flung into the bush. The use of open areas close to residential land for urination and defecation is very common and has been identified as a major health hazard.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia has the second-lowest population density of any sovereign country, after Mongolia. In 2017 there were on average 3.08 people per km. The total fertility rate in 2015 was 3.47 children per woman according to the UN.


title: Namibia

text: The majority of the Namibian population is of Bantu-speaking origin—mostly of the Ovambo ethnicity, which forms about half of the population—residing mainly in the north of the country, although many are now resident in towns throughout Namibia. Other ethnic groups are the Herero and Himba people, who speak a similar language, and the Damara, who, like the Nama, speak Khoekhoe.


title: Namibia

text: In addition to the Bantu majority, there are large groups of Khoisan (such as Nama and San), who are descendants of the original inhabitants of Southern Africa. The country also contains some descendants of refugees from Angola. There are also two smaller groups of people with mixed racial origins, called "Coloureds" and "Basters", who together make up 8.0% (with the Coloureds outnumbering the Basters two to one). There is a substantial Chinese minority in Namibia; it stood at 40,000 in 2006.


title: Namibia

text: Whites (being mainly of Afrikaner, German, British and Portuguese origin) make up between 4.0 and 7.0% of the population. Although their proportion of the population decreased after independence due to emigration and lower birth rates, they still form the second-largest population of European ancestry, both in terms of percentage and actual numbers, in Sub-Saharan Africa (after South Africa). The majority of Namibian whites and nearly all those who are of mixed race speak Afrikaans and share similar origins, culture, and religion as the white and coloured populations of South Africa. A large minority of whites (around 30,000) trace their family origins back to the German settlers who colonised Namibia prior to the South African invasion during the First World War, and they maintain German cultural and educational institutions. Nearly all Portuguese settlers came to the country from the former Portuguese colony of Angola. The 1960 census reported 526,004 persons in what was then South West Africa, including 73,464 whites (14%).


title: Namibia

text: Namibia conducts a census every ten years. After independence the first Population and Housing Census was carried out in 1991; further rounds followed in 2001 and 2011. The data collection method is to count every person resident in Namibia on the census reference night, wherever they happen to be. This is called the "de facto" method. For enumeration purposes the country is demarcated into 4,042 "enumeration areas". These areas do not overlap with constituency boundaries to get reliable data for election purposes as well.


title: Namibia

text: The 2011 Population and Housing Census counted 2,113,077 inhabitants. Between 2001 and 2011 the annual population growth was 1.4%, down from 2.6% in the previous ten-year period.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia has 13 cities, governed by municipalities and 26 towns, governed by town councils. The capital Windhoek is by far the largest urban settlement in Namibia.


title: Namibia

text: The Christian community makes up 80%–90% of the population of Namibia, with at least 75% being Protestant, of which at least 50% are Lutheran. Lutherans are the largest religious group, a legacy of the German and Finnish missionary work during the country's colonial times. 10%–20% of the population hold indigenous beliefs.


title: Namibia

text: Missionary activities during the second half of the 19th century resulted in many Namibians converting to Christianity. Today most Christians are Lutheran, but there also are Roman Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, African Methodist Episcopal, Dutch Reformed, Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses.


title: Namibia

text: Islam in Namibia is subscribed to by about 9,000 people, many of them Nama. Namibia is home to a small Jewish community of about 100 people.


title: Namibia

text: Up to 1990, English, German, and Afrikaans were official languages. Long before Namibia's independence from South Africa, SWAPO was of the opinion that the country should become officially monolingual, choosing this approach in contrast to that of its neighbour South Africa (which granted all 11 of its major languages official status), which it saw as "a deliberate policy of ethnolinguistic fragmentation." Consequently, SWAPO instituted English as Namibia's sole official language, though only about 3% of the population speaks it as a home language. Its implementation is focused on the civil service, education and the broadcasting system, especially the state broadcaster NBC. Some other languages have received semi-official recognition by being allowed as medium of instruction in primary schools. Private schools are expected to follow the same policy as state schools, and "English language" is a compulsory subject. Some critics argue that, as in other postcolonial African societies, the push for monolingual instruction and policy has resulted in a high rate of school drop-outs and of individuals whose academic competence in any language is low.


title: Namibia

text: According to the 2011 census, the most common languages are Oshiwambo (the most spoken language for 49% of households), Khoekhoegowab (11.3%), Afrikaans (10.4%), RuKwangali (9%), and Otjiherero (9%). The most widely understood national language is Afrikaans, the country's lingua franca. Both Afrikaans and English are used primarily as a second language reserved for public communication. A complete list of languages according to the 2011 census is 48.9% Oshiwambo, 11.3% Khoekhoegowab, 10.4% Afrikaans, 8.6% Otjiherero, 8.5% RuKwangali, 4.8% siLozi, 3.4% English, 1.2% Other African Languages, 0.9% German, 0.8% San, 0.7% Other European Languages, 0.3% Setswana, and 0.1% Asian Languages.


title: Namibia

text: Most of the white population speaks either Afrikaans or German. More than a century after the end of the German colonial era, German continues to play a role as a commercial language. Afrikaans is spoken by 60% of the white community, German by 32%, English by 7% and Portuguese by 4–5%. Geographical proximity to Portuguese-speaking Angola explains the relatively high number of Portuguese speakers; in 2011 these were estimated to number 100,000.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia launched a National Health Extension Programme in 2012 deployment 1,800 (2015) of a total ceiling of 4,800 health extension workers trained for six months in community health activities including first aid, health promotion for disease prevention, nutritional assessment and counseling, water sanitation and hygiene practices, HIV testing and community-based antiretroviral treatment.


title: Namibia

text: Namibia faces a non-communicable disease burden. The Demographic and Health Survey (2013) summarises findings on elevated blood pressure, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity: