Would've had him between 10 and 15 but that's largely due to I not rating pure batsmen particularly highly. I consider him arguably the second best batsman of all-time, and without doubt in the top five, If pushed I'd have him after Bradman and Hobbs.
It's scary that, IMO, If Tendulkar retired in 2003 after 14 years of cricket, lots of people, of whom I would not be one, would rate him higher than they do now. That was the time when most of the comments about him being the second best after Bradman started flooding in and it seems logically insane to penalize him for having another decade of merely excellent batsman-ship in addition to the initial period of era-defining batsmanship.
His achievements in the 90s are heavily understated IMO. In the decade, only three other batsmen averaged fifty(Waugh, Lara and Gooch). he averaged a clear five runs ahead of anyone else averaging
58 which is pretty crazy considering he was but a kid for four years of the decade and had not matured to his complete batting prowess yet. What is more remarkable is that he played only 69 games as opposed to many others who played close to hundred and yet scored 22 tons in the decade four clear of Waugh who played 89 games(!) and Lara who played 65 games, around the same, managed only 13 tons! Stuff of absolute legend IMO.
I think a large amount of the underrating perception surrounding Tendulkar being an accumulator is based on his last decade of batsmanship. I would ask people who do that a question - If say, Greg Chappell or Viv Richards decided to stay back and 'accumulate' runs for 7-8 years more beyond in the 80s and the 90s at an average of 45-50, which would be a ridiculous help to the team, Would you not consider it valuable?
This picture in the other thread is absolutely brilliant and I believe it requires reposting, I did not do the circling btw,-
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/8669/homeawayi.jpg
Well, anyway, long story short, Without a shadow of doubt, the best batsman of my time of watching cricket and there's something ridiculously romantic about someone in their 22nd year of batsmanship scoring 1500 runs @ 78 and It is unthinkable to imagine that such an event will ever happen again in my lifetime.