Tendulkar

Surely the greatest batsman ever ?......

Another hundred...143 v Bangladesh....

What a Cricketer.

playing test cricket for over 20 years and still performing

discuss.

No way is he the greatest batsman ever, naturally there is only one candidate for that - no, NOT Owais!

There was a very interesting analysis by Mike Atherton of the lil' fella, in that if you plonked him down in the 70s and earlier he'd have struggled. The advent of covered pitches, the front-foot no-ball law and protective clothing have loaded things in favour of batsmen.

To overcome all the above handicaps, lose 6 years out of your career when you are at your peak, and STILL average 99.94 in Tests, now there's your greatest batsman of all, bar none.

EDIT: And unfortunately, the best batsman in the world in recent years isn't Indian, nor West Indian. It's Punter.

All that cracks me up , Tendulkar has played on arse wickets , he's played test cricket for 20 years....when you consider the standard of pitches in India and West Indies back then it shows what a top top player he has and is.

The pitches today are a million times better than the uncovered pitches of old. India is a particular case in point, where the pitches they have produced in recent years have been poor normally only in that they are so flat as to make Test Cricket almost unwatchable. If you consider a mediocre (at best) batsman in Sehwag has swiped his way to Test triple-centuries, this bears it out.

I am not denying Tendulkar is a master of his art, and if a world XI of the last 20-30 years was produced he'd be an automatic choice. But to place him above Bradman, Pollock, Richards (Barry and Viv), Weekes, Sobers, Hanif Mohammed, Ponsford, Hammond, Grace, Sutcliffe, Compton, Hutton etc. is disingenous at best.

Many of the players above also had the longevity that Tendulkar has had.

Sehwag , mediocre ? your having a giraffe.

what does that make Owais then

Yep, very mediocre, and goes some way to explaining why Test Cricket in the sub-continent doesn't hold the same appeal it does elsewhere in the world. He has a big wide bat that means edges can go for 6 and a decent eye. Technically he is all over the shop.

Owais suffered through trying too hard when he was in the side (eventually), and had he been a more mature character in 2001 when originally selected for ODIs, he'd have had a long and fulfilling Test career. As it was he'll just have to console himself that Cricinfo saw one of his last ever England knocks as one of their top ODI innings of 2009. Never mind.

CREDYGRECIAN said:

Sehwag , mediocre ? your having a giraffe.

what does that make Owais then

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English!

Whilst I agree that Tendulkar is certainly a craftsman and a pleasure to watch, it would be very difficult to argue against Jason, especially when it comes to the flat track modern pitches.

Jason H said:

Yep, very mediocre, and goes some way to explaining why Test Cricket in the sub-continent doesn't hold the same appeal it does elsewhere in the world. He has a big wide bat that means edges can go for 6 and a decent eye. Technically he is all over the shop.

Owais suffered through trying too hard when he was in the side (eventually), and had he been a more mature character in 2001 when originally selected for ODIs, he'd have had a long and fulfilling Test career. As it was he'll just have to console himself that Cricinfo saw one of his last ever England knocks as one of their top ODI innings of 2009. Never mind.

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Basically Owais aint good enough to get in the side , isnt fit enough and is a poor fielder.

Poor technique which gets caught out in the test arena , hence why he doesnt play.

Id take Sehwag in Englands side any day of the week , great hand-eye and hits the ball hard and scores big runs.

You could argue that if Ponting had played as long as Tendulkar then his record would be better than Tendulkar

however no doubt that during my time of watching cricket he is one of the greatest batsman ever, his cover drive is probably the best one i have ever seen absolutely effortless

plus he is a really nice guy to a proper role model

Ah how to compare players ... worth noting there will never be another Bradman ... 99.94 etc .. but he only averaged 57 or so in Bodyline which was the closest that era came to "modern cricket" of 70s/80s aggression - that being said he would have faced far more deliveries per day than now due to over-rates ...

Run aggregates are very difficult to compare with anything other than a biased eye ... would anyone else say that Graham Gooch is the best English batsman ever ?

Thought not ...

Just enjoy him and recognise that players like him, Lara, Punter come along only a couple of times per generation and can change series and decades ...