Harsh Thakor's Mail And My Reply

I have been reading your writings on Cricket and have deeply
appreciated youir writings and work.I was particularly impressed with
your writings on the greatest cricketers of all time,greatest test
batsman.The presentation was extremely interesting.I particularly
applaude your evaluation of Sir Garfield Sobers at the top amongst
cricketers and Viv Richards so high amongst batsmen as well as Brian
Lara.However I still feel great injustice has been done to Sachin
Tendulkar ,who desreves to be amongst the top 8 cricketers and the top
4 batsmen of all time with his accomplishments.Remember at his peak in
the mid-1990's he hardly received any support from fellow players and
solely bore the pressure.Still he won some important games in tests
and one-dayers,particularly against Australia.Combined stats. of test
and one days put Sachinon another pedestal and to me only perhaps
Bradman,Hobbs,Sobers, and Richards rate above him.In test match
Cricket it was always neck to neck between Sachin and Lara and until
mid-2009 Lara had the marginal edge.However after his phenomenal
recent performances in the  last year Tendulkar has won the battle for
the top spot in the current era.I agree Lara was better at his best
as he could register mammoth scores and could change the complexion of
a game more than Sachin,particularly when the chips were down.However
Tendulkar has shown a considerably greater degree of consistency.

I too rate Sobers ,the best cricketer of all time ,with Imran possibly
the best after his retirement.I also like your appraisal of
WalterHammond and Kapil Dev.I also feel that Jack Hobbs hs been placed
too low down in your list ,who should have been in the top 5
cricketers and top 3 batsman.You have forgoten the great Len Hutton
and Jack Hobbs in your test match batsman list.I still would not rate
Sehwag as good as Sachin,Lara or Ponting.Ricky Ponting and Allan
Border also you have not placed anywhere.-,who could well comprise the
top 15 batsman of all.I think you have overrated Javed Miandad and
also forgotten Graeme Polock,George Headley and Everton Weekes.

I have writen many articles on these topics on blogs and really wish
to share them with you.Many of my comments have been published on
cricinfo.Did you by any chance read Cristopher Martin Jenkins 100 best
cricketers?I wish my comments could be pubished.

Anyway keep up the good work.Maybe one day you would write a
book.Please reply without fail.


Reply


Hi

It was great pleasure to get your insight. When I rated these cricketers, I took into consideration a lot of factors. For example, When I rated Imran Khan at #3, I took his contribution to the Pakistan team and I found that as an individual cricketer he contributed to Pakistan cricket more than any other individual cricketer to his team. As a bowler, a useful batsman, and a captain he made greatest contribution than any other cricketer to their national team.The difference he made the national team as an individual cricketer. Just look at the way he won the 1992 Final. Playing at the age of 39 being a bowling all-rounder he came to bat #3, scored those runs to set a platform to unleash the explosive batsmen later in the innings. Who else do you think could have done that.

Similarly I rated Lara above Sachin Tendulkar. Lara, I believe is only one batsman of his type. Scoring a hundred is a great achievement and doing it many times is greater. Different cricketers have different number of hundreds to their credit depending on their ability, longevity, and the position they batted. But see how many cricketers got 400?. How many cricketers have a 500 in first class cricket?. How many cricketers have as many double hundreds as Brian Lara? Comparison can be made between Tendulkar and Ponting because they are both great batsmen and have different strengths and weaknesses, but. Tendulkar and Ponting cannot be compared to Brian Lara, but then nobody can be compared to Lara. If Lara was a part of a as strong team as Tendulkar or Ponting have been, he would have even more big scores.  What sets Sachin apart from other cricketers is his dedication, discipline, maturity beyond his years, and hunger for runs, and record. One would have to consider the fact that Sachin has 50, but one also has to consider the fact that in as many as innings that Lara has played, Sachin had lesser number of hundreds. Sachin is a genius, but Lara was phenomenal and exceptional. Where Tendulkar outscored others is as an opening batsmen in One Day Cricket. When Tendulkar batted in the middle order he was second to Mohammad Azharuddin in terms of average and had not scored a single hundred.

If you compare Tendulkar's record in the middle order in one day cricket with that of the other greats like Vivian Richards, Greg Chappel, Dean Jones, Brian Lara, Javed Miandad, Michael Bevan, and Zaheer Abbas, it is  inferior.  If you look his record in World Cup 1992 when he batted in the middle order and the subsequent World Cups you will know the difference between a Tendulkar in One Day International in middle order and as an opener.

Similarly if you compare Sachin's average in the matches India won with the average of some great batsmen in his time in the matches their respective teams won, you would find him low in the list. He is behind some of the great batsmen of his time, leave alone all time. The problem with Sachin is that he cannot deliver that knockout punch despite playing long innings. He could never be a great finisher. One would remember his great innings against Pakistan in Chennai where he succumbed at the last hurdle despite playing a gem. Similarly, despite playing so well throughout the tournament in 1999 and playing McGrath well many times, he tamely got out in Quarter-Final. It could have been justified if the delivery was as good as to get a great talent like Tendulkar. His dismissal in the Final in 2003 against Australia was another such case. He batted so well and scored so many runs in league stage of the tournament when other batsmen's chances of scoring  were also good. But it was good that he scored those runs. But at the greatest stage, faced with a daunting task, he was the first to go back to the pavilion in 2003 World Cup Final. For the kind of form that he was what one would have expected him to do was to get out in the initial stage of the game. Sachin Tendulkar has given great joy to the people of India, but the love and support he received from the people of India is much greater than any other Indian cricketer has received. He always received unconditional support from the people of India, media, fans, team mates, and all those who mattered, but still failed whenever the pressure was on. He may be the most complete batsmen in terms of ability to play different kinds of bowling and different position, but he is not greatest match winner as his failures at the crucial stages of World Cup tournaments and the last innings of the test matches suggest.

What is the reason the Team India of 2000s has outperformed Team India of 90s. Sachin was there in 90s as well as in 2000s so were the other cricketers like Rahul, Laxman, and Anil Kumble. It is cricketers like Sehwag, Yuvraj, Dhoni, and Zaheer Khan that made the real difference to team India.  If you take out Sehwag from Indian team of 2000s and add it to the Team India of 1990s and just try to analyse the difference it could have made. There is a fallacy that Sourav's elevation to the Indian team's captaincy had made the difference to the fortunes of team India in 2000s. No, it was not. It was Sehwag's emergence that changed fortunes of Indian cricket and gave that much strength to the players coming down in the order. Just see how Laxman's game changed after Sehwag came into the Indian team. It is not only his contribution, but the psychological strength that he provides to the other batsmen coming down the order that has made the greater difference to the fortunes of the Indian team.

Those in my list of greatest cricketers of all time ahead of Sachin Tendulkar need not be necessarily be more talented than Sachin Tendulkar, but their contribution to their respective teams was more critical than that of Tendulkar's. Their impact on their respective team was greater than that of Sachin Tendulkar. If you have to look at sheer impact there could be case for some more cricketers being greater than Tendulkar.

The reason why I put Javed Miandad ahead of some of the batsmen you mentioned is that l is his fighting qualities and not just his technical abilities as a batsman. Javed Miandad was only one of his type. The way he carried that innings against India in Sharjah and finished it with a six is simply out of the fiction books. Leave alone the cricketers that you have mentioned, I think even Zaheer Abbas was a greater batsman than Javed Miandad. But who else do you think had the fighting abilities of certain Javed Miandad. You must have witnessed the Final between India and West Indies in 1983. There were as many as six World Class batsmen in West Indian team of 1983. How did they got out. Was it a great bowling or poor judgment of shot selection. India did not have a World class bowler except Kapil Dev. They required runs merely at the rate of 3 runs per over, but still could not. What did they lack. What they lacked is ability to fight and playing according to the situation despite possessing all the talent in the World.

As for Jack Hobbs, I think the cricketers above him made more critical contribution to their team than Jack Hobbs. Statistics alone does not tell the whole story in the game cricket. My list is still incomplete. There are only 25 of them.