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Sachin Tendulkar has stepped down as Mumbai Indians captain ahead of the IPL 2012 season-opener against Chennai. Harbhajan Singh, who was Tendulkar's deputy, has been selected captain by the franchise after Tendulkar cited needing a "break'' in leadership duties as the reason.”Sachin Tendulkar, in discussion with the management of Mumbai Indians, has decided to hand over the tasks of captaining Mumbai Indians in season five of the IPL to ace off spinner Harbhajan Singh," a media release from the franchise stated.

Tendulkar said that he had discussed the matter with the owners of the franchise before taking the decision. "At this point of time, I feel I need a break from the responsibility of captaincy of the Mumbai Indians," Tendulkar was quoted as saying in the release. "After due consideration, I discussed my intention to hand over the captaincy of the team to Harbhajan Singh, with Mukesh Ambani and Nita."

In the four years Tendulkar was at helm, the best result Mumbai achieved was in the 2010 edition of the competition, when they completed as runners-up to Chennai Super Kings. Harbhajan, who led Mumbai to the Champions League T20 title last year, was the automatic choice to take over the leadership mantle. Incidentally, Tendulkar sat on the bench through that winning campaign, as he was getting better from a toe injury he picked up during the England tour last August.

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Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag - the only two double centurions in ODI cricket will give the main points of discussion when the selectors assemble in Mumbai today, to pick a 15-man squad for the Asia Cup. This selection panel led by Kris Srikkanth, during which the selectors are likely to axe an underperforming Sehwag and consider the ODI future of Tendulkar. Tendulkar has yet to inform the board about his availability or unavailability for the Asia Cup.

Previously, whenever Tendulkar had decided to opt out of a series, he had notified the board in advance, the situation with the expert batsman being what one board official described as "an unmanageable". MS Dhoni is likely to lead the team as opposed to being rested to Dhaka for the competition that begins on March 12. Zaheer Khan will be rested and a valuable cameo of 40 not out against Sri Lanka in Hobart may have given Suresh Raina a fresh lease of life following his disappointing tour of Australia.

It has been an incredible slump in form for Sehwag, whose last international innings, before landing in Australia was his record-breaking 219 against West Indies. "He keeps getting out to shots that he should not be chasing at all. His case is turning out to be a little awkward," the board official, who had allegedly had a word with the selectors, said. "Dropping him and asking him to take a break is an option."

Tendulkar, needing just one more century to score an extraordinary 100 international hundreds, completed 15,000 runs during his unbeaten 87-ball knock. The master batsman, the world's leading scorer in both Test and one-day cricket, looked at the sky and raised his bat before being congratulated by team-mate Rahul Dravid and the West Indies players.

Player Name	Team	Matches Played	Runs	Best
Sachin Tendulkar	India	182	15048	248*
Rahul Dravid	India	158	12860	270
Ricky Ponting	Australia	155	12495	257
Brian Lara	West Indies	131	11953	400*
Jacques Kallis	South Africa	146	11947	201*

Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev have been named to the greatest Test team ever, selected by over 250,000 fans across the world. The fans voted the final XI on the ICC website, making their choices from a shortlist of 60 provided by the ruling body for the game.

Indian batting expert Sachin Tendulkar and opener Virender Sehwag are among the list of players nominated for an online poll to choose the greatest team of all-time on the occasion of Test cricket's 2,000th match. The historic match will take place between India and England at Lord's from July 21 to 25, and the ICC has called on supporters from across the globe to select the greatest team of all-time.

While Sehwag has found a place in the list of openers, which also has former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar, Tendulkar has been short listed for the middle-order batsman's slot. However, no Indian player has found a place in the shortlist for the slot of wicketkeepers and fast bowlers, while the 1983 World Cup winning Indian team captain Kapil Dev is in the estimate as an all-rounder.

Opening batsmen: Geoffrey Boycott, Sunil Gavaskar, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Jack Hobbs, Len Hutton, Hanif Mohammad, Virender Sehwag, Herbert Sutcliffe, Victor Trumper.

Middle-order batsmen: Don Bradman, Greg Chappell, Wally Hammond, George Headley, Brian Lara, Javed Miandad, Graeme Pollock, Ricky Ponting, Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar.

All-rounder: Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Aubrey Faulkner, Richard Hadlee, Jacques Kallis, Imran Khan, Keith Miller, Wilfred Rhodes, Gary Sobers, Frank Worrell.

Wicketkeepers: Les Ames, Mark Boucher, Jeff Dujon, Godfrey Evans, Andy Flower, Adam Gilchrist, Alan Knott, Rod Marsh, Clyde Walcott, Wasim Bari.

Fast bowlers: Curtley Ambrose, Sydney Barnes, Michael Holding, Dennis Lillee, Ray Lindwall, Malcolm Marshall, Glenn McGrath, Fred Trueman, Courtney Walsh, Wasim Akram.

Spinners: Bishen Bedi, Richie Benaud, Lance Gibbs, Clarrie Grimmett, Jim Laker, Anil Kumble, Muttiah Muralitharan, Bill O'Reilly, Derek Underwood, Shane Warne.

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Mumbai Indians

There could be a few changes or rearrange in the batting order. There is a possibility that the brilliant Rohit Sharma could open with Tendulkar. Sharma is not new to this role as in the past he had opened for the Indian team. The little master continues to be the main run-getter for MI with 477 runs from 14 matches. Sharma (359 runs) and Rayudu (383 runs) have been the other main batsmen.

If the three get going at the top, then players like Kieron Pollard, Franklin could be upsetting in the ‘death’ overs. Lasith Malinga is the top wicket-taker in IPL-4 with 27 wickets from 14 matches.

Key Players: Rayudu, Lasith Malinga, Rohit Sharma

Kolkata Knight Riders

For Gautam Gambhir, it was a nightmare of the last over against MI other day as it was a disappointing end to the league campaign. He was confident that both KKR and Balaji will come back hard at Mumbai. Gambhir has followed in the way of MS Dhoni. He has been cool and calculative.

In other seasoned players like Jacques Kallis and Brett Lee, KKR have got the extra cushion. But it is the performances of batsman Manoj Tiwary and left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla that have caught the eye.

Key Players: Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Yusuf Pathan

Sachin Tendulkar can complete another landmark on Sunday by hitting his 100th international hundred as India tackle West Indies in the World Cup's final group match. Both sides have yet to make sure of their quarterfinal places, although the qualifying picture from Group B will become a lot clearer after South Africa, who are already through, face hopefuls Bangladesh in Dhaka on Saturday. As well as the qualification picture, most of the 38,000 fans at the Chidambaram Stadium will be anticipating Tendulkar's 100th international hundred.

	Matches	Inns	Runs	N.O	Avg	SR	100	50
Test	177	290	14692	32	56.94	53.96	51	59
ODI	449	438	17953	41	45.22	86.39	48	93