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2001–02: Mike Denness incident, Kolkata Test, and breaking Bradman's record

During India's 2001 tour of South Africa, in the second Test match, referee Mike Denness fined four Indian players for excessive appealing, and fined the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly for not controlling his team. Denness suspended Tendulkar from one match for alleged ball tampering. Television cameras captured images that suggested Tendulkar may have been involved in cleaning the seam of the cricket ball. The incident escalated to include sports journalists accusing Denness of racism, and led to Denness being barred from entering the venue of the third Test match. The ICC revoked the status of the match as a Test as the teams rejected the appointed referee. The charges against Tendulkar triggered a massive backlash from the Indian public.

On the final day of the Kolkata Test against Australia in 2001, Tendulkar took three wickets, including the key wickets of Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist, who were centurions in the previous Test. His three wickets haul helped India win the match. In the five-match ODI series that followed, he took his 100th wicket in ODIs, claiming the wicket of then Australian captain Steve Waugh in the final match at the Fatorda Stadium in Goa.

In the 2002 series in the West Indies, Tendulkar started well, scoring 79 in the first Test. In the second Test at Port of Spain, Sachin Tendulkar scored 117 in the first innings, his 29th Test century in his 93rd Test match, to equal Donald Bradman 's record of 29 Test hundreds. He was gifted a Ferrari 360 Modena by Fiat through Michael Schumacher for achieving this feat.

Then, in an unprecedented sequence, he scored just 0, 0, 8, and 0 in the next four innings. He returned to form in the last Test scoring 41 and 86, one half century. However, India lost the series. In this period, in the third Test match against England in August 2002, Tendulkar scored his 30th Test century to surpass Bradman's haul, in his 99th Test match.