Loud Thinking November 15, 2013 at 01:57PM

Sachin Tendulkar: The world’s 29th best batsman?

By Ben Carter
BBC News

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In today’s Magazine

When Sachin Tendulkar walks out to the crease for the final time in Mumbai, he will bring to an end a career that has earned him god-like status in India. But how good are his batting stats compared with other top players?

If we looked purely at cumulative runs scored then this article would be very short.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar had amassed 15,847 Test runs before the start of his final Test on Thursday, which is about 2,500 more runs than any other cricketer.

Let’s compare him to four other players – whose names would surely be mentioned in any discussion about the greatest batsman of the last 20 years – Australia’s Ricky Ponting, South Africa’s Jacques Kallis, Brian Lara of the West Indies and Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka.

Left to right: Jacques Kallis, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara
Tendulkar’s 15,847 Test runs compare with 13,378 for Ponting during his Test career, while Lara made just short of 12,000. Kallis and Sangakkara, who are still playing, have 13,140 and 10,486 respectively.

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Brief glossary

Innings: Each player’s turn to bat. Also, a team’s turn to bat, which ends when 10 of the 11 players are out.

Test match: A cricket match played over five days between two senior international teams.

ODI: One-day international, a match of one innings per side, played on a single day.

Cricket glossary
But while Tendulkar dominates in terms of overall runs he’s also way ahead in terms of number of games played.

His final Test is his 200th. That’s 32 more than Ponting played and 68 more than Lara. Kallis is 36 games behind and Sangakkara a full 83.

So perhaps a fairer way of comparing cricketers is by looking at averages?

This brings cricketers who played decades ago into the picture. In previous generations, cricketers played far fewer matches, so no-one whose career ended before 1950 features among the top 35 all-time aggregate Test run scorers.

But when you look at averages, the man who reigns supreme is Australian Donald Bradman, who played for 20 years between 1928 and 1948.

Incredibly, Bradman ended his career with his average at 99.94.

No other batsman gets close.

Looking at those who have played a minimum of 20 Test matches, Tendulkar ranks 15th on the all-time list with an average of 53.71.

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Five leading century scorers
Tendulkar Ponting Kallis Lara Sangakkara
TESTS
Appearances
199
168
164
131
117
Runs
15,847
13,378
13,140
11,953
10,486
Average
53.71
51.85
55.44
52.14
56.98
Centuries
51
41
44
34
33
ODIs
Appearances
463
375
321
299
356
Runs
18,426
13,704
11,498
10,405
11,932
Average
44.83
42.03
45.26
40.48
40.31
Centuries
49
30
17
19
16

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That is marginally ahead of Ponting and Lara (who rank 24th and 18th) but marginally behind Kallis at 14th, with an average of 55.44 and Sangakkara at 10th on 56.98.

But the astonishing thing about Tendulkar is his level of consistency – he has averaged more than 50 for the last 18 years.

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Career-highest ICC batting rating

Ponting
942
1996
3rd tied
Sangakkara
938
2007
6th tied
Kallis
935
2007
10th tied
Lara
911
2004
23rd
Tendulkar
898
2002
29th
Like many great batsmen, his average has fallen in the twilight of his career, however. So might an even better way of measuring a player’s greatness be to examine how he performed at the peak of his powers?

The International Cricket Council (ICC) player ratings allow you to do this by valuing each player’s performance based on various circumstances in a match, such as the level of run-scoring and the standard of the opposition. The ICC gave Tendulkar his highest rating in 2002, when he was awarded a “score” of 898 after a Test against Zimbabwe.

But that is only the 29th highest of all time.

Bradman, again, leads the way with 961 awarded to him after a Test against India in the dying days of his career, in 1948. And Ponting, Sangakkara, Kallis and Lara all achieved ratings above 900 – a level which the ICC says is “an indication of quite exceptional, world-class form”.

Australian cricketer Donald Bradman in 1930
The ratings imply that at his peak Tendulkar was not as impressive as the others.

But he did top the ICC batting rating table on five occasions during his career, and a 16-year gap between his first (1994) and last (2010) appearance at the top of the rankings again shows how consistently he performed at a high level over a prolonged period.

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But there are other yardsticks too, by which to measure a batsman’s career.

Many cricket purists prefer to disregard stats, and focus on the skill, style and strength of will a player displayed during a great innings.

Patrick Ferriday and Dave Wilson, authors of Masterly Batting: 100 Great Test Centuries, created their list of favourites based on a number of different criteria – runs, conditions, bowling strength, percentage of team total, chances, speed, series impact, match impact, and what they refer to as “intangibles”.

Tendulkar makes their list just once, in 100th place, for the 155 not out he scored against Australia in Chennai in 1998.

This seems a meagre return for a man who has hit 51 centuries in his Test career. Brian Lara, meanwhile, has five centuries in Ferriday and Wilson’s top 100, including three in their top 20.

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A form of greatness

There are many facets of his career that are extraordinary, which aren’t necessarily captured in the highest average or even the highest peak.

One of them is his sheer longevity – the ability to find answers to all the problems that cricket threw at him and that I think within the game is one of the things that people revere about Tendulkar.

This guy played for 24 years, he never really got found out, he could play all forms of the game brilliantly and that in itself is a form of greatness.

Ed Smith

Author, commentator, and former England cricketer

“Tendulkar’s reputation is based on his longevity, consistency and the fact he has played his whole career under the pressure of being an Indian icon,” says Ferriday.

“But I don’t think he played the stellar innings that Brian Lara played. Most of Lara’s centuries were innings that either saved his team from losing or enabled them to win. Tendulkar’s were often hidden amongst those of his team-mates.”

Yet another method of measuring a player’s value was introduced in 2010. The Impact Index measures every player relative to the other performances in the same match.

Its creator, Jaideep Varma, pays tribute to the one man he feels has made a pre-eminent contribution to the Indian side over the last 20 years, but it’s not Tendulkar… it’s Rahul Dravid.

“Dravid has more series-defining performances (eight) than Tendulkar does (six) in fewer matches,” says Varma.

“The great players tend to take the lead, they tend to dominate, which Tendulkar has not done in the big matches right throughout his career. Rahul Dravid is a superior Test player to him in terms of changing the cricketing history of his country.”

But there is one big intangible that has made Tendulkar’s career different from almost any other player’s – the weight of expectation.

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Best in class

Overall runs
Tendulkar
Average
Bradman
ICC rating
Bradman
Masterly Batting
Bradman and Lara
Impact
Dravid and Inzamam-ul-Haq
Tendulkar has batted for 24 years under the gaze of a billion devoted Indians. It could be argued that the fact he’s survived and revelled under these conditions is a better indication of greatness than any number could ever be.

“Outside grounds, people wait until he goes in before paying to enter,” Shane Warne once said. “They seem to want a wicket to fall even though it is their own side that will suffer. This is cricket as Sachin has known it since the age of 16. He grew up under an incredible weight of expectation and never buckled once.”

As he walks out to bat for the last time his home ground in Mumbai, in the next few days, the Little Master will be hailed by thousands of portraits held aloft and banners protesting love.

But perhaps none of them will sum up India’s attitude better than the sign seen at the 2011 cricket World Cup, when Tendulkar scored 120 against England at Bengaluru.

“Commit your crimes when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed, because even the Lord is watching.”

Tags: My Views