Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (born 24 April 1973 in Mumbai) is a small man at 5ft 5in but he is a cricketing colossus. Wisden rated Sachin Tendulkar as the second greatest Test Cricket and ODI batsman of all time after the legendary Sir Don Bradman and Sir Viv Richards respectively. The list was later revised to make him best ODI player of all time. I disagree, he is the best ever batsman of all time.
http://betting.betfair.com/cricket/cricket/tendulkar-is-a-better-batsman-041207.html
I have the most deepest and sincerest respects for what The Don achieved but you cannot compare those undemanding runs scored against amateurs in the 30’s and 40’s to Sachin’s, scored against the modern era fast bowlers and real spinners.
The Don scored most of his runs against bumbling, clumsy, inept, limited, unfit, sometimes ageing upper class twits with speed on a par with today’s club cricketers. There was no Marshall, Ambrose or Walsh. There was no Hadlee, McGrath or Lillee. There was no Akram or Waqar and there certainly was no Warne or Muralitharan to face so how can you measure his runs reasonably? You cannot!
Look at Graeme ‘flat pitch bully’ Hick’s record in county cricket compared to Test cricket and you will understand what I mean. Watching videos of The Don I was struck by the amount of runs scored by the horizontal bat and Wisden noted that he never never truly mastered batting on sticky wickets. Wisden commented, "if there really is a blemish on his amazing record it is the absence of a significant innings on one of those ’sticky dogs’ of old"
What you do know is that The Little Master has faced the finest bowlers ever, all over world in and all situations showing his indefinable excellence given only to geniuses. Don Bradman was in awe and confided to his wife that Tendulkar reminded him of himself, he knew who was best! Brian Lara admitted that the Indian was the greatest he had ever seen. "You know genius when you see it and let me tell you, Sachin is pure genius" he said. Shane Warne agreed. Matthew ‘king of sledge’ Hayden called him a God.
Sachin Tendulkar is the most worshipped cricketer in the world and the biggest cricket icon ever. His batting shows perfect and wonderful balance, economy of movement and precision in stroke-making. His batting is a delight on the eye and senses. He has all the shots in the textbook and has no weaknesses. He has made runs all over the world in all conditions. His century as a 19-year old on a lightning fast pitch at the WACA was considered the greatest innings ever to have been played in Australia.
He holds all the important batting records such as the leading Test century scorer, leading ODI century and half-century scorer, one of only three batsmen to surpass 11,000 runs in test cricket as well as being the first Indian to do so. He also has the most career ODI runs. He has scored 37 centuries and 46 fifties in Test cricket and 41 centuries and 87 fifties in ODIs (See cricinfo.com). The conversion rate of fifties to hundreds is unparalleled. All this after making his Test debut at 16 years old.
Famous for saying ‘getting better never stops’ has caught up with him. As with all great things there comes a time when the down slope sets in, not always steeply but down nonetheless. There is evidence of this now happening to The Little Master.
He can no longer play like the prince of his youth and it is indisputable that Father Time now has a hold on Tendulkar’s genius. He has acknowledged that he is no longer the player he once was. He is playing to the limitations (a relative statement) imposed by the passage of time, the ravages of recent injuries, and nearly two decades carrying the weight of his nation. He is now adapting to new realties especially when bowlers adapt a bodyline strategy, giving him the chance to highlight his bravery. He has gone from artist to warrior whilst keeping himself reserved and modest. His fame, wealth and fortune has not affected his cricket one iota, he still hates to lose and is proudly patriotic!
Has any sportsman had so much of an impact on so many since Muhammad Ali?
Will he score another century on 8 December 2008 when India play Pakistan in the Third Test Match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore? I would not back against it. I will certainly check out the top batsman odds on the day. Current odds for this match show India 2.46 and Pakistan 6.2 with the draw favourite at 2.26 with Betfair.
Note: Part of the best thing about sport is that it isn’t just what happens on the pitch that matters. It is the pub chat that surrounds the game that keeps the intrigue up. Some may think that Sachin is the best that has ever played and some may be in the Sir Don camp. However one thing that is for sure is that rivalries are one of the strongest aspects of the game and this summer for The Ashes, Betfair are putting together a special fan v fan website to get the competitive juices flowing both on the pitch and o
I do agree with that article completely.
Saying Bradman is better than Tendulkar because of his batting average, is like saying Rod Laver is better than Federer because he won four slams in a year.
March 1st, 2010 at 5:00 am
A fair comment. Bradman is obviously the best test batsman and the Master Blaster was the greatest ODI player, he didn’t just attack a bowler, he butchered them. Tendulkar is good but Sir Viv was the best ODI batsman in the game.
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March 1st, 2010 at 5:29 am
You can say that the bowling and fielding in Bradman’s time was rubbish, but for all the 100’s of hours he spent batting there was somebody else at the other end, and 10 other guys in the team, yet nobody else could manage to average 97, or 94, or even 85, there is 20 years of stats to look at and there were only a handful of guys who could manage to consistently average even 45, think of the worst pitch you have ever seen Sachin bat on, that would be about the best you could expect to see in 1930/40’s. The point is that that Bradman’s ability was so far ahead of everyone else, look at the batsmen he played with, McCabe, Woodfull, Ponsford, Morris, Ryder, etc., you can take any 2 of them and add their averages together and it still does not reach 99.94, try doing that with any team today, there are about 25 batsmen this century averaging 50-55 in Test matches, any modern batsman would need to average at least 110 for 20 years to even equal Bradman, of course I’m talking about Test cricket, ODI is a completely different game, Bradman never played it so no comparisons are necessary.
The same point applies to Viv Richards, his ODI average and strike rate has not been matched by any top order batsman and since he scored his runs at a time when a score of 230 would win 90% of the time his performance is even more amazing than his stats reveal.
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March 1st, 2010 at 6:00 am
So some Pommy reject has impressed you with HIS opinion…big deal. 99.94% of all Aussies will agree with me that Paul Moon is a fool.
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March 1st, 2010 at 6:32 am
There was no Marshall,Ambrose,Walsh,Waqar or Akram? Im not surprised cause they werent even born then, have you ever heard of bodyline? Have you ever heard of any matches not played in the last 20 years? It sounds like your knowledge of cricket is very limited,at least you have heard of some clown called Paul Moon, you are one step ahead of me there I admit.Good luck to you.
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March 1st, 2010 at 7:22 am
His article isn’t brand new and he has made few valid points, like Sir Don & Sir Viv, calling them, along with Sachin, the greatest batsmen– then he credits, Sachin, without the evidence of last 12months or so, being the greatest ODI’s, relegating Sir Viv in the process, maybe Sachin’s hero but persevering with Sir Don as the greatest Test player, his stats are too over-whelming, to say the least, to relegate him behind any past or current players, despite Wisden’s observations.
Sachin off late is on mending path, whatever record or achievements eluded him, previously, like 2nd innings record, centuries against countries,he had missed scoring etc., he is making conscious efforts, to do, what he failed to do earlier, so that his article, is complete, like Federer’s grand-slam, when someone writes about him in the future, so pl also expect a Triple ton, eluding the master so far and what he achieved last night, no other player has ever done,in the last 40 years, 200 in ODI’s, so wish him all the best to come up with his 100 international centuries, sooner than later, world cup win, triple century or one of the records, off Lara’s cupboard.
So on the evidence of last 12 months, this article is null & void, even the writer himself might agree !!!
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March 1st, 2010 at 7:43 am
I do agree with that article completely.
Saying Bradman is better than Tendulkar because of his batting average, is like saying Rod Laver is better than Federer because he won four slams in a year.
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