Latest update June 4th, 2026 12:30 AM
Really! Tendulkar is the world’s 29th greatest batsman?
One of the priceless values in life on which knowledge is based is research. Research removes the fiction and fallacy that your naked eyes bring to you. And this is because when you observe a phenomenon over a period of time, what then is presented to you is what you see. But what about context?
It is only when you contextualize an activity, behaviour, process or phenomenon that the objective meaning is brought out.
The world’s attention was turned last week to a sad event – the retirement of one of the globe’s greatest sporting icons – a not very tall and robustly built batsman in cricket by the name of Sachin Tendulkar. Yet the people of India and countless others around the world think he is the best cricketer the game has ever seen. But there is a big BUT.
Were we not glued to India to see the retirement last week of Sachin because of what our eyes told us – He has the most runs in cricket than any other and more century’s figures that may never be broken.
But what happens when the career of Sachin Tendulkar is contextualized? Prior to reading a brilliant contextualization of the statistics of Sachin last week on the BBC, my choices were Don Bradman and Brian Lara as batsmen and Gary Sobers as the best cricketer in history. After reading that BBC article which is a scholarly masterpiece, I am not sure if Sachin could still retain his place as numero uno in the eyes of educated people who know how to contextualize.
I hereby suggest you read, “Sachin Tendulkar: The 29th Best Batsman in the World?” by Ben Carter, BBC online edition, November 15, 2013. This is a superbly written academic analysis of Sachin Tendulkar’s career in which the writer quotes from ICC statistics, a potent book titled, “Masterly Batting: A Hundred Great Test Centuries,” by Patrick Ferriday and Dave Wilson and the IMPACT INDEX, a methodology invented by an Indian from India named Jaideep Varma.
Ben Carter in analyzing the materials from these sources has put Sachin Tendulkar way below a dozen other batsmen, placing him at number 29. But what readers should know is that Carter didn’t arrive at this judgement as his opinion. He relied on the sources he used. In other words, Carter contextualized.
Here is what Jaideep Varma did with his Impact Index methodology. Varma looked at the impact each great batsmen has had on getting India out of dangerous, hopeless situations with their long, brilliant innings at the cease. He concludes that Tendulkar is way behind Rahul Dravid when it comes to the value of Indian batting in terms of the impact it had on the game for India’s success.
Now this is not the statement of a non-Indian and this Indian writer did not choose someone from outside of India. His choice for the best batsman India produced is Rahul Dravid. Carter’s statistical comparison of Tendulkar with Rickey Ponting, Brian Lara, Jacques Kallis and Kumar Sankakkara is fascinating and I am strongly suggesting you read it. As a matter of fact, I think anyone who is in love with Sachin but most of all, cricket, should read Ben Carter.
From the statistics seen, there is a fascinating piece of knowledge that has emerged. Ricky Ponting is just two thousand runs behind Sachin’s accumulation but played 32 fewer tests. Carter is arguing that in that context how can you put Sachin above Ponting? It is a fair argument. The only thing Sachin would have going for him would be the phenomenal talent of being there for 200 Test matches. Could any cricketer match that now or in the future?
But in terms of a great batsman, Ponting with just two thousand runs behind Sachin and played 32 fewer games than Sachin puts the Aussie in the spotlight.
Carter quotes from the book by Ferriday and Wilson and shows where out of the 100 great centuries, Sachin is given one while Brian Lara is allotted four. Carter does some fantastic juggling with context using various methodologies and relying heavily on ICC statistics. His conclusions are that Sachin Tendulkar is not among the five greatest batsmen the world has seen.
But let us end this article with a simple statistic that all Caribbean people will find exciting. Sachin Tendulkar has 15,921 Test runs from 200 Test matches. Brian Lara has 11,953 from 131 Test matches. Lara has 68 matches fewer than Tendulkar but only 4,000 runs less than Tendulkar.
You must be careful to conclude on the basis of matches played and runs scored that Tendulkar was the best. When contextualized, Sachin may not be.
Share this:
Discover more from Kaieteur News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.