Tendulkar W/Cup ‘Man of Tournament’

JOHANNESBURG: Legendary West Indies and Barbados all-rounder Sir Garfield Sobers will present the Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2003 Man-of-the-tournament award to India’s Sachin Tendulkar today.

Tendulkar’s two points from India’s semi-final win on Thursday over Kenya, when he scored 83 and took two wickets, were enough to establish an unassailable lead of four points over the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly. Sir Garfield Sobers, widely regarded as cricket’s greatest ever all-rounder, will hand over a gold trophy worth 500,000 rand (US$60,000) to Tendulkar at the end of today’s World Cup final between defending champions Australia and India at The Wanderers Ground. Tendulkar has now scored 669 runs at an average of 66.90 during the tournament, a new record aggregate, with one century and six 50s. He is now also the heaviest scoring batsman in World Cup history, having passed Javed Miandad’s previous career record.

The trophy and the gold watches awarded to all Man-of-the-Match winners have been donated by the Gold Mining Industries of South Africa. Dr Ali Bacher, Executive Director of CWC 2003, said: “We wanted this to be the best World Cup ever, and Sachin’s brilliant batting has helped the tournament captivate many millions of people around the cricketing world. He thoroughly deserves this accolade.” Ganguly’s century in the Kenya game won him the Man of the Match award, but leaves him currently with 10 points, compared to Tendulkar’s 14. Man-of-the-tournament points standings after semi- finals: Sachin Tendulkar (India)  14; Sourav Ganguly (India) 10; Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka) 9; Marvan Atapattu (Sri Lanka) 8; Brett Lee (Australia) 7; Andrew Symonds (Australia) 6.