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NEWS Cricket World Cup 2007>Sachin Tendulkar's World Cup dream 28th Feb 2007 23.27 IST By Agencies He may have innumerable batting records to his name, but if there is one chapter that Sachin Tendulkar would like to add to his glittering career, it is winning the quadrennial extravaganza – the World Cup. Despite being one of the senior most cricketers who would be in action in cricket's biggest extravaganza that gets under way in the Caribbean Islands from March 13, Sachin still appears hungry for more glory and motivated to set new marks.
Sachin was adjudged as man of the match on an enviable eight times, the highest so far by any player, besides being declared Player of the Tournament at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa where he was also Man of the Match on three occasions. Sachin also tops the list of stars for most runs in World Cups, highest strike rate and batting averages among the current players and joint first for most number of centuries. Sachin has amassed 1732 World Cup runs in 33 matches followed by Javed Miandad (Pak 1083), Aravinda De Silva (Sri Lanka 1064), Sir Vivian Richards (West Indies 1013) and Mark Edward Waugh (Australia 1004). Among the contemporaries, Aussie captain Ricky Thomas Ponting is sixth with 998 runs. Former World Cup winning Indian captain Kapil Dev although has the best strike rate so far in World Cups with 115.14. Sachin, perhaps the richest cricketer in the world, is joint leader in the list for most number of centuries (four) in World Cups along with compatriot Sourav Ganguly and Mark Waugh of Australia. Sachin's centuries were 127 not out against Kenya at Cuttack (95-96), 137 against Sri Lanka (Delhi 95-96), 140 not out against Kenya (Bristol 1999) and 152 against Namibia at Pietermaritzburg South Africa in 2003. The exploits against Kenya helped Sachin surpass the World Cup aggregate of another batting legend Vivian Richards, who had then tallied 1013 runs in 23 matches. For Sachin, the records did not end there. He also happened to be the fastest century maker from India by scoring in 140 not out off just 84 balls, aided by 16 fours and 2 sixes. He broke the record of Sunil Gavaskar, who had scored a century in 85 balls against New Zealand at Nagpur in 1987. It was also the third fastest World Cup century after Clive Lloyd's 82 ball effort (against Australia at Lord's in 1975) and Brian Lara 's 83 ball ton (against South Africa at Karachi in 1996). Sachin has been the face of Indian cricket for nearly two decades now. The boy wonder from Mumbai was truly a product of one-day cricket whose exploits with the willow have coincided with the rise of India both as a cricket and economic power. Compared to Sir Donald Bradman by none other than the Don himself, Sachin is cricket's most prolific run scorer - with 10,668 from 135 Tests and 14,783 from 381 ODIs. The world record holder for most Test centuries (35), India's premier batsman has stamped his class in cricket's showpiece event. In 33 matches from four World Cup appearances, Sachin has amassed 1732 runs at 59.72 with four hundreds. Sachin would be keen to celebrate his 34th birthday in the Caribbean as it coincides with the first semi-final on April 24 and then go on to realize his dream of winning the World Cup. Also View In-Depth Coverage: Cricket World Cup 2007 Team Page: India Team Page: West Indies | LIVE CRICKET COVERAGE NEWS ~ Gilchrist has no plans to retire after World Cup ~ Ganguly's new batting approach may cost him sixer record ~ India 'squash the Orange' in World Cup warm-up game ~ Symonds gets a new hairdo for World Cup ~ Dhoni readies himself for stand-up act at World Cup (more in NEWS) FACE-TO-FACE ~ 500-mark a possibility in World Cup: Hayden ~ Minnows add charm to World Cup: Dravid (more in FACE-TO-FACE) COLUMNS ~ Will Sri Lanka replicate 1996 World Cup success? (more in COLUMNS) OFF-THE-FIELD ~ Ganguly again the darling of corporate world ~ Ganguly roped in as brand ambassador of Puma (more in OFF-THE-FIELD) PLAYERS Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble (more PLAYERS) TEAMS India, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, West Indies, Zimbabwe, England, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Kenya, Holland | 
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