25 Mar 2010

Tendulkar still not keen on playing in 20/20 World Cup despite mounting pressure

6:03 am on 25 March 2010

The Indian superstar batsman Sachin Tendulkar rejected a growing clamour in India to play in next month's World Twenty20 despite enjoying prime batting form in recent months.

Tendulkar, who recently became the first man to score a double-century in one-day cricket, has played just one Twenty20 international in his 21-year, record-breaking career.

The Mumbai star, who turns 37 next month, opted out of the first two T20 world championships in 2007 and 2009, saying the younger members of the side were more suited for the shortest format of the game.

But former players want him to take part in the third edition, starting in the Caribbean on April the 30th, following a string of high scores in both Test and one-day cricket.

In the past 12 months, Tendulkar has averaged 71.50 in nine Tests with five centuries, and 65.28 in 17 one-dayers with three hundreds.

In the ongoing Indian Premier League domestic Twenty20 tournament, he has hit 176 runs in four games with a strike-rate of 155.75.

Tendulkar was excluded from the provisional list of 30 announced last month, but tournament rules permit a player not in the list to be included in the final 15.