Sachin Tendulkar has been in extraordinary form for the past 2-3 years and that has not been nothing new for him or for millions of his followers because he has shown phases of brilliance innumerable times in his illustrious career apart from being extraordinary consistent.  However what has been special for Sachin Tendulkar in 2010 is the number of times his achievements have been official recognition and this time around with the ICC Cricketer of the year Award and the latest ICC rankings which lists Sachin Tendulkar at the top.

Sachin Tendulkar was ranked number three in the world  a week back and I for once was not surprised to see him ranked number one this week.  Sangakkara and Sehwag was ranked over him the previous week and according to my calculation Sehwag's dismal show in the series against Australia means he would move one spot down which means Sachin would be at least number two.  Sachin's double century and unbeaten half century in the Bangalore test were more than enough to propel him to the top.

The Test Rankings have been dominated by Indians and Sri Lankans with Sachin Tendulkar, Kumar Sangakkara and Virender Sehwag occupying the top three slots. There is yet another Indian in the form of West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpual at number 4 who shares that slot with Sri Lankan Jayawardene.  Our own Very Very Special Laxman is ranked number 8 in the world which means that 5 of the top 8 slots are occupied by Indians and Sri Lankans.  In one dayers India have 3 of them in top 10 in the form of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, skipper M S Dhoni and the dangerous Sehwag.

While Sachin Tendulkar is the rightful owner of number one ranking he can still lose it any point of time because of a flaw in the system.  In 2007 Sachin Tendulkar was ranked number one in one dayers after leading India to a historic triumph in the tri series in Australia but he lost it immediately and the reason for that was that there were no one dayers scheduled to be played by India and Greame Smith the number two took over the top spot without either him or Sachin playing a match.

All of us are well aware of Sachin Tendulkar's historic unbeaten double century against South Africa at Gwalior in a one dayer  and in spite of that monumental knock Sachin Tendulkar is ranked number as low as number 10 because he has never played a match since then.  The ICC ranking system seems to be similar to ATP rankings in tennis wherein the number one player in the world loses his ranking if he does not play for a whole year because performances of the last 12 months are taken into consideration.

ICC should be well advised to have a system wherein the performances of a certain number of games for example the last 25 games to be taken into consideration and that would ensure that a players ranking is protected in cases he misses out on matches due to injuries or other commitments.

Sachin Tendulkar's moment of glory in ICC rankings has come after a poll conducted by Australian newspaper Sydney Morning Herald in which he was voted as the second greatest cricketer ever in the history of the game.