But you keep talking about extenuating factors, you might want to factor in that during the 1997 tour there was a lot of discontent in the Lara camp that he was not made captain.. Now, we can discuss the rights and wrongs of it from the moral or human perspective, but surely just batting wise, it MUST have affected the way he batted????.
It most likely did TBF, since when Tendy was captain vs SA in 96/97 & 99/2000 to a level it affected his batting.
And to counter this argument, there is the fact that Lara had hell of a lot more success against McWarne than Sachin did... Lara scored BIG hundreds with very little batting support which Sachin didn't.
Mainly because at their peaks they only met in 4 tests in the 90s. Although i would agree i dont think Tendy could have made those destructive BIG hundreds againts AUS that Lara did. He probably would have scored a typically composed hundreds like MCG 99, if he played them more at their respective peaks.
Ultimately, I don't think either of them were incapable of handliing the great bowlers and what are being pointed out here are, for me, statistical anomalies because had Sachin got the opportunities that Lara got against McWarne I am sure he would have been more successful than he already was against them.
And had Lara got more opportunites against Donald/Pollock or even the Ws esp. when in another year or two when there was not so much going on outside, I am sure he would have been just as successful. As I said, Sachin can be considered to be that slight bit more consistent than Lara but then again Lara is that slight bit more likely to go on and make a more significant score than Sachin. Ultimately it is personal preference and for me, I rate the ability to make really big hundreds as a tad more important than being that bit more consistent and hence I prefer Lara by the slightest possible margin to Sachin.
Well i personally before i started this thread way back, i tried to keep out every statistical anomalities as possible & i'm 99% sure i did. For example their records in ENG & vs ENG overall. Tendy has hardly faced a top english attack home or away, while Lara did, so i never considered it in the argument.
I didn't consider any battles/runs Tendy or Lara had vs good/great attacks during the periods they where injured.
So to Lara's record vs SA againts Donald/Pollock i dont think that stats picking because in 2001 in WI he had a chance to correct it. Even though it goes againts my arguemt that:
5 said:
. Tendulkar has averaged 40+ away from home againts good/great attacks more times than Lara. Lara up until 2001 only did so once vs SRI in 2001 while recently in Australia he averaged 57. Lara also never averaged 40+ in South Africa when Donald-Pollock were playing nor when Wasim-Waqar etc were playing.
So i cant agree for sure that Lara IF he had more oppurtunities vs SA/PAK away from home, againts those bowlers - thay he would have scored hundreds. Since Tendy did on his first tries, so Tendy should gain an advantage for that.
But overall by personal prefence i am in the Lara camp, id prefer to watch him bat than Tendy all day. But not to be biased, i think their is enough evidence to say due to Tendys consistency againts the the best bowlers in 90s & superior techinque. He should be given that slight edge over the Prince of POS.
