And at the end of 1995 mid-way through the decade Lara averaged 60.96 and Tendulkar 51.73. The point is that they are different ages, and Tendulkar was due for a slump as well (read: now), and you have to compare their careers as a whole. Yes, Lara was poorer than Tendulkar in the second half of the 90s, and far better in the first, that really neither here nor there.
I am talking overall- ie the whole decade, the whole nine yards.
If you wanna go year-by-year through the 90s, out of the 9 years they've both played(Lara missed 1991), Tendy has averaged more than Lara in 7 years while Lara has averaged more than Tendy in only 2- 94 and 95.
Obviously the gap between Tendy and Lara was far more in the late 90s than it was between lara and tendy in the early 90s- otherwise, Tendy couldnt have finished with superior stats against EVERY SINGLE OPPOSITION they played against and 7 pts ahead on the average. Its like first set is 6-4 to Lara, second set is 6-1 to Tendy.
Lara in my mind has the genius ability to decimate any attack, his weakness outside the off-stump is no worse than Tendulkar's weakness to the one that straightens on him and gets him trapped in front so often (see: Gillespie, Jason), and has the ability to play match-winning knocks and turn games to the West Indies through his brilliance alone. He has in fact single-handedly kept them afloat over the last decade.
Lara has the ability to score massively more than anybody else on this planet- or anybody ever barring Bradman.
That is the single biggest reason for his greatness.
However, there are several other categories where Lara falls short of Tendulkar.
One is consistency.
The other is scoring against quality attacks - both Lara and Tendy have scored heavily against the aussies ( when they had their primier bowlers) but Tendy has scored better against quality attacks like RSA or PAK in the 90s.
Another one, is their performance in the opposition's backyard, when the advantage shifts away from them- tendy outstrips Lara handily in that category.
Overall career-wise, Lara has picked up in the last 3 years or so, when the bowling quality has died down and Tendy has slowed.
Overall career-comparisons, its close but i will give the cigar to Tendy.
But when you talk about how they stood contrasting to each other at the end of the 1990s, there is simply no debate. Tendy was head and shoulders above.
Like i said, he had a superior record against EVERY SINGLE opposition- AUS, ENG, NZ,PAK, RSA, SL.
He had a superior away average by about 10 points.
He had a superior overall record by some distance.
As per tendy's weakness to the one that straightens on him- that is a chink in his armour but nowhere as glaring as Lara's to the ball bowled just short of a length outside offstump and moving away a tad.
McGrath got him a bajillion times with that, so did Fleming, so did Pollock and so did Donald and every tom **** and harry bowler had lara at sea with that delivery.
Back then, Lara was dodgy against spin, clueless against Akram and overall inferior.
It was so obvious that Lara was inferior to Tendy at the end of 90s that lara himself admitted that he wasnt good enough.
That is game, set and match to Tendy- the opposition has conceded.
