Wisden, regarded as the Bible of cricket, has named Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar as the leading cricketer in the world for the year 2010.

The iconic batsman became the seventh recipient of the Wisden award after teammate Virender Sehwag, Australians Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne, England's Andrew Flintoff, Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan and South African Jacques Kallis.

The 148th edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack was launched today and it was the first time that Tendulkar has won the award since it started in 2004.

In 2007, Wisden had identified Tendulkar as the player to have won such an award for 1998 - had it been instituted then.

Tendulkar, who realised his long-cherished dream when India won the World Cup earlier this month in Mumbai, has also been named in Wisden's 2009 Test XI, at his accustomed number four position.