The Great Game Called Cricket...

MUMBAI: With the Mumbai team gearing up to face Delhi in the Ranji Trophy semi-finals at the Brabourne Stadium in the New Year, there’s speculation in the cricketing circles over Sachin Tendulkar’s participation in the match. As has been reliably learnt by TOI, Tendulkar will give it a miss.

Tendulkar wants to take a good (and deservingly so) rest before he resumes duty for the national team once again in the Test matches in Bangladesh that will follow the tri-series, also involving Sri Lanka, in February 2010.

Whatever Tendulkar decides to do is always well thought of and his decision to skip the triangular series in Bangladesh is one such step looking at the goals he has set for himself for the coming year.

For the time being though, Tendulkar could well afford to just rewind the phenomenal year that 2009 has been. In what was the 20th international year of the great player’s career, he has punctuated it with many more landmarks like the many stars in a galaxy.

Just look at what he achieved in the last twelve months: By the time Tendulkar decided he was done with the year, he had scored 88 international hundreds (43 in Tests and 45 in ODIs). His first century of the year came on March 8, 2009 when he registered an unbeaten 163 in the third ODI which India won by 58 runs.

Soon, he reminded us that all is well as he made his blazing magnum speak for him with a century against New Zealand at Seddon Park in Hamilton on March 20, his 160 ensuring a 10-wicket win for India and their first in New Zealand since the Auckland Test of 1976.

Opting out of the four-game ODI series in the West Indies in June, Tendulkar joined his India teammates in Sri Lanka for the Compaq Cup, with a new endorsement on his bat. The result: His second ODI ton of the year - on September 14. He made 138 and India won by 46 runs. Tendulkar was both the man-of-the-match and series.

The biggest knock of not just this year but perhaps of the decade from Tendulkar arrived on November 5 when he scored the historic 175 in the fifth ODI against Australia at Hyderabad. In the process, Tendulkar also became the first to score 17,000 runs in ODIs and also the first to slam nine ODI tons against the Aussies.

The man who was showered with worldwide praise on his 20th international cricketing birthday, Tendulkar gifted his fans his second Test century of 2009 against Sri Lanka at Ahmedabad. The unbeaten 100 helped India save the match on the final day. It also saw Tendulkar become the first to log 30,000 runs in international cricket