Let's read an interview of Brian Lara conducted by the Times Of India (Mumbai edition) today.
Sachin’s the greatest, says Lara
Mumbai: With true greatness, comes a certain humility.
One of the raging- some would say unresolved- debates in cricket for years has resolved around the question of who's the world's best batsman, Sachin Tendulkar or Brian Lara ?
In Lara's mind, though, there's no room for doubt - Sachin, he says, is the best. To be even spoken of in the same breath is, for him, a huge compliment. No matter that Lara's the highest run-getter in Test history with a record that's superior to Tendulkar's: not only has he more runs to his credit, he has done it in fewer matches, although he have played more innings than Tendulkar, plus Tendulkar averages more than Lara (Tendulkar on the other hand, is the best of one-dayers).
"You know genius when you see it, and let me tell you, Sachin is pure genius. If my son were to ask me who he should try and emulate, Sachin or me, I'd tell him, Sachin." the well spoken, articulate 37-year-old West Indian captain told Times Of India during an informal conversation at the water-front residence of the Rulas (of Essar fame) on Thursday night.
There's a look of genuine admiration in his eyes and on his face when he says, " I haven't seen Bradman or George Headley. Sachin is the greatest batsman I've seen." Vivan Richards too was great, but by the time Lara came into the West Indian team, the King was in the last lap of his career. he learnt a lot from Richards. "Sometimes he would abuse me, but next morning I'd be on his tail again," says Lara, smiling. "I knew there was a lot I could learn from him."
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Let's have a look at what "HOLY BOOK" of cricket WISDEN says about Tendulkar .....
Tendulkar second-best ever: Wisden
The Bible of cricket, Wisden, has rated batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar as the second greatest Test batsman ever, behind the legendary Don Bradman of Australia.
In the shorter version of the game he was behind West Indian legend Viv Richards, who was rated the best ever. Tendulkar was placed ahead of several cricketing idols, including Brian Lara of the West Indies, Mark Waugh of Australia and Saeed Anwar of Pakistan.
Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan and Pakistan's Wasim Akram were rated the best bowlers in Tests and one-dayers respectively.
While Muralitharan pipped many stalwarts like Richard Hadlee, Shane Warne, Dennis Lillee and Courtney Walsh, all of whom finished in the top ten, Akram was followed by Allan Donald, Waqar Younis, Glenn McGrath and Joel Garner.
Besides Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar (8) and Sourav Ganguly (6) were the other two Indian batsmen in the list for their exploits in the Test and one-day arena respectively.
However, no Indian bowler, including the legendary Kapil Dev, could find a place in the top-ten bowling list.
According to Wisden, while preparing the list the expected score for a top performer was around 1000 points and the Don, who had a batting average of 99.94, managed 1349.
Tendulkar got 921.5 points. Among the current players, only Lara got a place in the Test list with 881 points.
Similarly, in the one-dayers, Richards got 1132.5 points while Tendulkar 1119.3 points, almost 90 points more than the third-placed Lara (1036.8).
Amongst the current one-day players, Michael Bevan (5) managed 1016.7 points followed by Ganguly with 1012.6. Jacques Kallis (1001.2) and Anwar (997.7) took the last two spots in the top-ten list.
Test Batsmen:
Don Bradman
Sachin Tendulkar
Viv Richards
Garry Sobers
Allan Border
Jack Hobbs
K Barrington
Sunil Gavaskar
Greg Chappel
Brian Lara
One-day Batsmen:
Viv Richards
Sachin Tendulkar
Brian Lara
Dean Jones
Michael Bevan
Sourav Ganguly
Mark Waugh
Zaheer Abbas
Jaques Kallis
Saeed Anwar
Lastly, WISDEN compares both Bradman and Tendulkar .....
"Tendulkar will never be the greatest batsman in history; that seat is taken. But as much as Donald Bradman's Test average (99.94) outstrips Tendulkar's (57.58), the gap diminishes substantially when other factors are taken into account.
"Tendulkar travels more in a year than Bradman did in a decade; he has had to manage the varying conditions of 49 Test grounds, to Bradman's ten; he has already played twice as many Tests as Bradman, and over 300 one-day games, nearly all of them under the unrelenting scrutiny of television. And whereas Bradman had to cope with the expectations of a small populace, not given to idolatry, in an age of restraint, Tendulkar must play God to one billion expectant worshippers."
