Sachin Tendulkar will not play for Middlesex in 2010, club confirms

Sachin Tendulkar felt the additional workload of playing Twenty20 for Middlesex would be too much. Photograph: Gautam Singh/AP

Sachin Tendulkar will not play for Middlesex this year after all, as the county side conceded defeat in their bid to have the India batsman, Test cricket's record run-scorer, play alongside the former Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist. Middlesex had announced as long ago as November that they expected to complete Tendulkar's signing "shortly", but a statement released by the club today confirmed that Tendulkar had eventually turned them down.
"We are all naturally extremely disappointed that Sachin has reached the decision not to join us this year, as without doubt, his presence within the Middlesex ranks alongside Adam Gilchrist would have been a major coup for the club," said the Middlesex CCC chief executive Vinny Codrington. "When the news initially broke that we were is negotiations with Sachin, it quite rightly created major headlines in all the sports pages, and it's a real shame we have been unable to reach a satisfactory outcome to our discussions with him.
"Sachin was very open and honest with us when advising us of his decision and went to lengths to express how much consideration he had given to the opportunity and how flattered he was that a club like Middlesex were so keen to have him on board. Whilst extremely keen to join the club, Sachin felt he wished to concentrate his efforts on prolonging his international career at the top of world cricket, and believed that the additional workload of playing Twenty20 cricket in the UK for Middlesex this year would place too much pressure on his already busy cricketing schedule.
"We would like to express our thanks to John Stephenson, MCC's head of cricket, for all his help, and we wish Sachin continued success with India and our thanks go to him for giving the club every consideration."