Sachin is India’s top sportsman

Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar has been named as the most influential person in Indian sports in the annual Sports Illustrated Power list.

The top 50 rates Tendulkar as the number one influencer in India, followed closely by IPL Chairman Lalit Modi at second spot and liquor baron Dr Vijay Mallya in third.

Union Agriculture Minister and President elect, ICC Sharad Pawar, Indian cricket team skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and BCCI president Shashank Manohar are fourth, fifth and sixth on the list respectively.

Some of the names in 50 most influential people in Indian sports including Tendulkar, tennis ace Sania Mirza (50th on the list), Beijing Olympics gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra (41st), Churchill Brothers Team owner Churchill Alemao (48th), Dempo Sports Team owner Shrinivas Dempo (49) were felicitated during a function here late last night.

Indian Premier League

The IPL will not run beyond seven weeks as extending it would "hurt other forms of cricket", says IPL chairman Lalit Modi.

"We are going to have the current limitation (in the IPL's duration), and we are happy to live with that. Then (if we make it a longer tournament) you are going to starting to hurt the other forms of the game," Modi said.

"We chose the window specifically to be off-season in India, April-May are typically off season in India ... I don't think we are going to be able to change that," he added.

The IPL will have 94 matches in the 2011 season but Modi said the tournament will only be 51 days long.

"It's (next season) only over seven weeks instead of six, it's over 51 days instead of 46, we have done the scheduling, we just have to announce it."

Modi reiterated that Test cricket remains a priority for the BCCI.

"Test cricket is our bread and butter which people don't understand, we are never going to compromise on Test cricket," he told 'Cricinfo'.

"When I talked about, you know, (how) we have to do something about Test cricket, it's in the other countries that Test cricket is going down. In India, our ratings are going up, we have been tracking that year by year, in fact, we get paid highest for Test cricket," Modi said.