I've already answered this question many times. Stage of career has nothing at all to do with anything.
You'd have to be a complete fool, I make no apologies for saying it, to suggest Tendulkar isn't a lesser player since 2003 than he was 1990-2002. You also have to be a fool to suggest he should have carried-on with his 1990-2002 form indefiniately, and to blame him for declining and hence failing to cash-in on the mostly crap bowling of the time.
LOL, that's absolutely absurd. If I, or anyone, expects to give Tendulkar the same credit for being a great batsman in a supposedly harder era, I will also expect him to do well in an easier one. That's just logical. If Tendulkar were averaging anything near the others, but just not as close as them, then that's something entirely different. Averaging 49, whereas guys like Ponting and Kallis are 71 and 66 respectively, IS something totally different.
No one is saying Tendulkar ISN'T a lesser played since 2003 because that's the whole point... he is. And when the conditions also suit scoring runs even more, then that damns his trough even more.
Tendulkar is no longer in a class of his own because of this because he really doesn't have much of an excuse for that kind of drop.
What this means is:
1) Scoring runs in this era, whilst it maybe easier, is still a very difficult thing to do. Even if you wish to take of a full
10 points off Ponting, he is still averaging a monster amount of runs.
2) Tendulkar cannot be excused in these comparisons for scoring this much lower. Sure, no one can take away his legacy, but at the same time he has fallen from grace and not at the end of his career or to any such notion that would suggest he is at the end of it or incapable. He just hasn't been good enough.
No, you're trying to find holes by seeing what you want to see and attempting to apply it to what I've said when as far as I - the person putting forward the arguments - is concerned, it is irrelevant.
I don't really agree with much you say so I can't really admit to caring if you see a correlation here or not. If you did, you wouldn't be propagating as you have, you'd change your ways. The fact that you're blind to your ways is the frustrating part.
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