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India's superstar Sachin Tendulkar was on Sunday named the player of the World Cup even before his team crashed to a 125-run defeat to defending champions Australia in the final.

The 29-year-old ensured the honour would be his after taking an unassailable lead in the voting system by which the match referee for each of the 52 games awarded three points for the best player, two for the second and one for the third.

Tendulkar, who ended with a record 673 runs in this tournament, secured 14 points, four more than his own captain Sourav Ganguly and five more than Sri Lanka's Chaminda Vaas.

Tendulkar was awarded a gold trophy worth 500,000 rand (62,500 dollars) in a post-match ceremony by the legendary West Indian Garfield Sobers, widely acclaimed as the best cricketer ever.

"It's an honour to be named the best player of the World Cup, but I would have been happier if India had won the title," he said.

"It was just one of those off days when nothing went right for us. We had a bad start and the pressure kept building."

Tendulkar, a multi-millionaire, also won three gold watches in the tournament which were awarded for the man of the match.

World Cup supremo Ali Bacher said the Indian star fully deserved the honour. "We wanted this to be the best World Cup ever, and Sachin's brilliant batting has helped the tournament captivate many millions of people around the cricketing world," Bacher said.

"He thoroughly deserves this accolade " Tendulkar is one-day cricket's most successful batsman with over 12,000 runs and 34 centuries.

Player of the tournament standings:

14 points: Sachin Tendulkar (IND)

10 points: Sourav Ganguly (IND)

9 points: Chaminda Vaas (SRI)

8 points: Marvan Atapattu (SRI)

7 points: Brett Lee (AUS)

6 points: Andrew Symonds (AUS).

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