Sachin retains second spot in ODI ranking

Dubai: Sachin Tendulkar retained his second spot among batsmen while India were closed in by Pakistan for the fourth place in the championship table of the latest ICC rankings list Sunday.

Tendulkar has 777 rating points behind leader Graeme Smith of South Africa who is on 792 points while Australian skipper Ricky Ponting is at third with 770.

Pakistani Mohd. Yousuf is at fourth with 763 points while West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul jumped five places to return to top five after his memorable performances against Sri Lanka at home.

India ODI skipper M S Dhoni is at 10th with 728 rating points.

Meanwhile, after their 5-0 whitewash against Bangladesh, Pakistan narrowed the gap with fourth-placed India to three ratings points.

South Africa (127), Australia (127) and New Zealand (113) are ahead of India (113).

The most significant change of the rankings was Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan slipping out of the top 10 bowlers in the Reliance Mobile ICC Rankings for the first time in over a decade.

Muralitharan, who was last out of the top 10 ODI bowlers in July 1997, skipped the ODI series which the West Indies won 2-0 and has now slipped to 11th below Pakistan's Shahid Afridi who climbed 11 places to enter the top 10 for the first time in his career after a successful series against Bangladesh in which he bagged 12 wickets.

No Indian is in the top 10 of the bowlers' list headed by New Zealand's Daniel Vettori, while Harbhajan is at 18th spot.

ODI action will resume in June when England takes on New Zealand in a five-match series from June 15.

Tendulkar very keen to play first IPL tie

Mumbai: Batting maestro and skipper of Mumbai Indians Sachin Tendulkar, who is down with a groin injury, is very keen to play the first match of the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament against Bangalore Royal Challengers at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.

"Everyone connected with cricket knows how passionate Sachin is about the game. After watching the Team Kolkata and Team Bangalore match yesterday, he is bent upon playing tomorrow’s match even if he is 90 per cent fit. He is scheduled to have a fitness test later today with our team physio and we will take a final decision on him just before the match," Mumbai coach Lalchand Rajput said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Rajput also confirmed that apart from Tendulkar there were no injury scares in the Mumbai camp.

"Former Indian seamer Ashish Nehra is declared fully fit. In fact Ashish played in all the practice matches so far and we have no other injury scares and all the players are looking forward to the first match," Rajput, who successfully managed the Indian team to its Twenty20 World Cup victory last year, said.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai team has added more former Indian cricketers to their support staff.

"We have summoned former Indian paceman Subroto Bannerjee, who is a level III coach and still plays grade cricket in Australia, to be our bowling coach while we have appointed Rahul Sanghvi as the team manager," the former Indian opening batsman said.

"(Former India stumper) Sameer Dighe, who is still fit as a fiddle, is our new fielding coach while Atul Bedade is our travel and logistics manager," he added.

Mumbai confident on Sachin

Sachin Tendulkar has been ruled out of the third Test with South Africa, but Mumbai Indians are hopeful he will be fit for the start of the Indian Premier League.

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A groin injury has forced the Little Master out of the home series with South Africa and there had been fears he would not be fit for the start of the IPL on April 18.

However, he has been placed on a tailored rehabilitation programme and Mumbai expect him to be fit.

"Sachin is a player who does not like to miss any games. I am sure the physio will take care of him and he will be all right in time for the IPL," Mumbai Indians coach Lalchand Rajput said on Monday.

Tendulkar is closing in on Brian Lara’s record of 11953 career runs in Test cricket and it would appear he has aims to complete before heading into retirement.

The 34-year-old is disappointed to have so far failed to win the World Cup and has hinted he would look to play on to 2011.

''I am enjoying my cricket at the moment, but don't want to think too much into the future,'' Tendulkar told IBN Lokmat.

''Winning the World Cup is certainly still an unfulfilled dream and I would love to play in it.

''But 2011 is still some way away, and I don't want to look that far and commit myself to anything."