Awesome sporting moments of the decade!

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Cricket

Player of the decade: By the end of the decade, Sachin Tendulkar had scored a scarcely credible 88 international centuries (43 in tests and 45 in ODIs) and was still going strong after 20 years at the top.


Beautifully balanced, with a complete range of shots, the 36-year-old Indian succeeded in all conditions against all opposition. He reserved some of his finest performances for Australia, consistently the world's strongest side for the past 15 years.

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Cricket

Defining moment: On February 20, 2008, eight Indian city-based franchises bid a total of $20 million for players to take part in the new Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 competition. Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni attracted the highest bid, emerging richer by $1.5 million before a ball had been bowled.


Cricket compressed into three hours has since become immensely popular with players and spectators alike. The pressing problem now for the game's authorities, who neither organised nor control the IPL, is the precipitous decline in attendances for five-day tests outside grounds in England and Australia.

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Match of the decade: England travelled to the Oval in September 2005, needing a draw to seize the Ashes back from Australia after 16 fruitless years in a series unanimously acclaimed as the greatest ever.


Shane Warne threatened to win the match single-handed for Australia with the sheer power of his personality before a century of breathtaking audacity by Kevin Pietersen saved the day for the home side.

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Football
Player of the decade: After a roller-coaster decade for Ronaldo de Assis Moreira of Brazil Ronaldinho, as he is better known, has emerged as the best player of the first 10 years of the 21st century.


One of a handful of players to win both the World Cup (Brazil 2002) and the Champions League (Barcelona 2006) during the decade, he was FIFA's World Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005, European Footballer of the Year in 2005 and at his peak was almost unplayable, continually creating and scoring outstanding goals for club and country.

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Football
Defining moment: FIFA's 2004 decision to award the 2010 World Cup finals to South Africa was not only a momentous one for soccer but also marked a huge turning point in the painful, troubled history of South Africa itself.


Nelson Mandela, who was imprisoned for 27 years under the apartheid regime before becoming the new "rainbow nation's" president, held the World Cup aloft in Zurich after FIFA president Sepp Blatter made the announcement. FIFA's decision to put their faith in Africa to host the finals looks like it will be repaid when they take place next June and July, although some sceptics remain unconvinced.