Oct 25, 2008
The Genius
What more could have Sachin Tendulkar done to be unequivocally accepted as the all time great of the cricketing world? My answer is ‘nothing’. I am not ashamed of saying that he is the one.
I cannot understand why he is always placed after Bradman and why he is always compared with Lara and now ridiculously with Ponting? If scoring more than 28,000 runs cannot make you the greatest, then nothing ever can and I think that is very unfair. How many who place him after Bradman have actually seen Bradman play? Sachin has definitely played more cricket than Bradman, has faced more variety of bowlers, who arguably could be better bowlers than those from the Bradman era. And Lara has scored 6,000 runs less at a lower average in both forms of the cricket.
November 1st, 2008 at 5:24 pm
batting must be difficult during bradman’s time. there were no protective gears (helmet, arm guards, etc.) at that time. pitches weren’t covered after the day’s play & if it rained overnight then it would have been very difficult for them to bat on. bradman has faced bowlers who were known for their dangerous intent (bodyline series).
though tendulkar has scored tons of runs, he has hardly been able to turn any match decisively in india’s favour. he can hardly be called a match winner.
lara has scored a 400 in a single inning. tendulkar has hardly been able to score a double century (i think only once).
November 2nd, 2008 at 10:42 am
1. I think the statement that Tendulkar has not turned any match decisively is a shallow one. I will definitely rummage through the statistics to prove otherwise - just need some time. Also, batting order is important and when you have one of the best top order batsmen in the world, there are not many moments when he alone could have been decisive. If you are comparing that with Lara’s contibutions then Lara would definitely stand out because WI did not have any other batsmen of his stature or even slightly lower and it was easy to stand out in every match or at least in every other match.
2. Also, though I agree Tendulkar has been short on the 200+ scores that cannot be a parameter for genius - then Sehwag will be in the league and he could be only if he does that consistently and then that could become a parameter. For now, I think that is not a parameter.
February 28th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
I dont mind if we still keep Don as the iconic 100% benchmark…for now comparisions to Don itself is a great achievement which nobody has managed in the last 60 odd years….with time…probably in a 100 years.. Sachin would be seen as the best of the best. Sadly in India people forget the good things unless you turn on the magic in each and every match…if Sachin plays, the match becomes easy as you win with big margins and people easily forget easier matches, what rankles in the heart is the ones you have lost by a few runs…and there are some heartaches here…but in the end statistics are the absolute truth and comparision model which speaks volume for SRT. True one would probably never reach 99.94, and while some would argue that superior fielding and Bowling would bring that down to 70 in today’s world, it is still miles above any batsmen in the game today…I think then that even though Sachin is not peerless, it is also good to know that the only peer is the Don himself.