MUMBAI: India may have belly flopped in the World Cup final against Australia but the performance of batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar has not gone unnoticed. He first bagged the player of the tournament award. Now, he has topped the Ceat World Cup Cricket Rating with the highest aggregate of points and emerged as the Ceat World Cup Cricketer 2003 with a tally of 27 points.

He will receive an award in the 8th CEAT International Cricket Rating Awards Ceremony, where leading performers in the CEAT Cricket Year of 2002-03 will be honoured and felicitated.Sachin is currently ranked sixth in the overall Ceat Cricket Rating for 2002-03 with 81 points.

An official release informs that before the Wanderers final, Johannesburg, Sachin Tendulkar was topping the ratings with 25 points, and battled it out with Saurav Ganguly with 23 points, Adam Gilchrist with 20 points and Bret Lee with 17 points. Though Gilchrist scored a rapid fire 50 he couldn't catch up

The Ceat World Cup Rating was first implemented during the 1999 World Cup. Current Indian vice-captain Rahul Dravid had topped the rating with 461 runs and a tally of 22 points in the tournament. The top five cricketers of the last world cup were Rahul Dravid (22 points), Neil Jhonson (21), Lance Klusener (19), Saurav Ganguly (16) and Steve Waugh (16).

The CEAT International Cricket Rating, now into its eighth year, comprises a 'Player' rating and a 'Team' rating. Performances of cricketers and cricket teams in Tests and one-day internationals from 1 May to 30 April are tracked and rated through a comprehensive and easy to understand points system. The player and team that top the rating are declared the CCR International Cricketer of the Year and the CCR International Team of the Year respectively.