Dear Mr. Artherton, Your assesment of greatness of a batsmen merely focusses on the batsmens ability to tackel the physical challenges. One should not forget the challenges of any modern day criketer which are unique and of a different kind. Playing non-stop round the year, travelling for the better part of it. The mental challenge by means of sledging require application and skill to overcome. Add to this the expectations of a million cricket crazy fans. Technology today has helped bowlers, captains and coaches to sort out the batsmen and any flows in the technique of a batsman can be really exploited. In addition to the busy test schedule we have the shorter and more demanding versions of the game, and Sachin's records are there to prove his endurance. He may not be the greatest in your opinion, but mind you you will have to wait very long to find a better player and a person like him on the cricket field. You will surely recognize this one day.
Re: Top 3 batsmen of all time.
by aishwarya patil on Nov 21, 2009 08:49 PM
Have you heard of Wally Hammond, Len Hutton, Dennis Compton, Jack Hobbs, George Headley, Everton Weekes, Gary Sobers, Barry Richards, Gremme Pollock, Hanif Mohammad, Sunil Gavaskar, eh?
Re: Re: Top 3 batsmen of all time.
by Saraswat on Nov 23, 2009 11:03 AM
Once Barry gone on to score a century with one leg entirely plasterd for fracture. But you missed Warrel, Pataudi, Contractor and Gavaskar.
how many occurances were there before the helmet era, where a bowler ended a batsman's career? the number should be in hundreds right..but y its not the case..
coz..just like the mind-set of a batsman changes with the advent of helmets..so does the bowlers too..they can attack with more bouncers these days..coz they know batsman are well protected by gear...thats y u see more body hits.. there was a post from somebody named 'superhero' and very good observation so I copied and pasted here....... olden days..the bowlers were well aware what they can do what they cant...except for rare series like 'bodyline'..thats y the series is so popular..
In fact a person in the era when their vast run required and the only way is hitting the ball, a really great player does samba on crease resulting to a cover, mid wicket or straight drive, squire, leg and late cuts, hooks and flicks, the words missing in cricket commentary today. I think their is some criteria for a Nobel or Oscar.
I am a bif fan of 10dulkar, but I am also assuming that he is the greatest ever. But I havn't ever thought what Atherton said about former great players. "To suggest that Tendulkar is the best ever is demeaning to those former greats who stood at the crease in the knowledge that their next ball could be their last,"
