The Sean
Cricketer Of The Year
As our final entry for this working week, we take a look at the man who has been hero-worshipped by more cricket followers than any other...
6.
Sachin Tendulkar | Cricket Players and Officials | Cricinfo.com
Nominated by 95% of voters - highest ranking no.3
“We have a young batsman in Bombay called Sachin Tendulkar who is sent from upstairs to play the game. He is only 15, a right–handed bat, 5 foot 5 inches tall, but I tell you, he’s going to be a great player.” With these words, spoken in 1988, Ravi Shastri announced Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar to the world. A year later, the teenage prodigy was playing Test cricket for India and for two decades and more than 30,000 international runs since that moment he has rarely been out of the public eye. A batsman of extraordinary ability, class and temperament, with exquisite technique and a cover-drive (among many other shots) to die for, Tendulkar has captured the imagination of cricket fans worldwide like few others in the history of the game while firmly establishing himself as one of the finest batsmen of all time.
Sachin's list of achievements over his two decades in international cricket would take up far more space than these brief descriptions allow. The world record holder for the most runs in both Tests and one-day internationals, he has also scored more centuries in both forms of the game than anyone else. All four records will take some eclipsing, but it is not stretching the bounds of credulity to say that his combined total of 30,270 international runs and 88 international centuries (both very much still counting) may never be beaten. Second on both the Test and ODI all time lists for number of appearances, it is fair to say that he is likely to hold both marks within the next year. Arguably, Tendulkar's genius was first shown to the wider world with his brilliant 148 at Perth as a 19-year-old, and for the rest of the 1990s Sachin made a habit of scoring heavily and breathtakingly against Australia, the strongest team of that era. After being on the receiving end of yet another Tendular ton in 1998, Steve Waugh commented of Sachin that "take Bradman away and he must be next up" whilst Bradman himself confided that Tendulkar of all players reminded him of him. Not that Australia were his only victims - Tendulkar has torn apart every attack in the world at some point, most on many occasions. Despite a relatively ordinary record against South Africa, the great Allan Donald was once moved to comment after a Tendulkar innings that such was the magnificence of the batting he witnessed that he just wanted to applaud every shot. Both the most fanatically celebrated and intensely critiqued player of his generation, and - for sheer volume of devotees - all time, Tendulkar has had to carry the hopes of a nation of one billion cricket fanatics on his shoulders from a very young age. That he has managed to do so with simultaneously such astounding success and such unaffected grace is a testament to him as a cricketer and a man. One in a billion indeed.
So that's it - only the top five remain, and I will begin to delve into that final elite over the weekend.
6.
Sachin Tendulkar | Cricket Players and Officials | Cricinfo.com
Nominated by 95% of voters - highest ranking no.3
“We have a young batsman in Bombay called Sachin Tendulkar who is sent from upstairs to play the game. He is only 15, a right–handed bat, 5 foot 5 inches tall, but I tell you, he’s going to be a great player.” With these words, spoken in 1988, Ravi Shastri announced Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar to the world. A year later, the teenage prodigy was playing Test cricket for India and for two decades and more than 30,000 international runs since that moment he has rarely been out of the public eye. A batsman of extraordinary ability, class and temperament, with exquisite technique and a cover-drive (among many other shots) to die for, Tendulkar has captured the imagination of cricket fans worldwide like few others in the history of the game while firmly establishing himself as one of the finest batsmen of all time.
Sachin's list of achievements over his two decades in international cricket would take up far more space than these brief descriptions allow. The world record holder for the most runs in both Tests and one-day internationals, he has also scored more centuries in both forms of the game than anyone else. All four records will take some eclipsing, but it is not stretching the bounds of credulity to say that his combined total of 30,270 international runs and 88 international centuries (both very much still counting) may never be beaten. Second on both the Test and ODI all time lists for number of appearances, it is fair to say that he is likely to hold both marks within the next year. Arguably, Tendulkar's genius was first shown to the wider world with his brilliant 148 at Perth as a 19-year-old, and for the rest of the 1990s Sachin made a habit of scoring heavily and breathtakingly against Australia, the strongest team of that era. After being on the receiving end of yet another Tendular ton in 1998, Steve Waugh commented of Sachin that "take Bradman away and he must be next up" whilst Bradman himself confided that Tendulkar of all players reminded him of him. Not that Australia were his only victims - Tendulkar has torn apart every attack in the world at some point, most on many occasions. Despite a relatively ordinary record against South Africa, the great Allan Donald was once moved to comment after a Tendulkar innings that such was the magnificence of the batting he witnessed that he just wanted to applaud every shot. Both the most fanatically celebrated and intensely critiqued player of his generation, and - for sheer volume of devotees - all time, Tendulkar has had to carry the hopes of a nation of one billion cricket fanatics on his shoulders from a very young age. That he has managed to do so with simultaneously such astounding success and such unaffected grace is a testament to him as a cricketer and a man. One in a billion indeed.
So that's it - only the top five remain, and I will begin to delve into that final elite over the weekend.
