Recently Ricky Ponting crossed Allan Border as the highest test run scorer for Australia. My congratulations to him. He has been a prolific run scorer for his team and has won a lot of matches single handedly for his team. Undoubtedly he stands alongwith Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Jacques Kallis as one of the best batsmen of this era.
A nice article was written about him on Cricinfo. You can read it here. However, what followed was a nasty debate between the australian and Indian cricket fans as to who has been a better batsman over the past years. Heated arguments flowed from both sides. Some Australians and to my shock some Indians as well went on to say that Ponting is the greatest batsman of this era and Sachin Tendulkar is the most over rated batsman world cricket has seen. He has been hyped by media and is no more than a flat track bully making runs against the weakest of opposition like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
I'm not going to provide any statistics, neither am I going to compare the three. But I just want to ask these people how can they be such poor judges of batmanship. Even if we agree that Sachin has been hyped by media, he would not have been lauded by the greatest batsman of all time, Sir Don himself; by the greatest spinner of all time, Shane Warne; by some of the greatest fast bowlers of modern era, including Allan Donald and Wasim Akram. It is one thing to sit in commentary or press boxes to scribble articles heaping praise/criticism on a batsman and it is another to have a first hand experience being out there in the field playing alongside/against him. People may have difference of opinion regarding who was the best, was it the maestro from Mumbai or was it the prince from Trinidad& Tobago and it is appropriate as well. But to label him as a flat track bully makes one wonder if these people really follow cricket or are fully loaded with prejudice.
Again, it is not his records or centuries that make him the greatest batsman (he is for me, if not for anybody else), it is the humility and the grace with which he has carried himself over the past 20 years or so. To live under the eyes of media, carrying the expectations of millions and still be able to maintain the composure is something which is quite unheard of in the sporting world.
Honestly, after Tendulkar, it is only Brian Lara and Mark Waugh whose batting I have enjoyed watching on TV. Ponting may have won more matches than Sachin or Lara did for their respective teams. He may go on to make most centuries and become the highest test run scorer. Ponting is undoubtedly one of the best batsmen of this generation. Nobody can take that away from him.But he failed to win one important thing which both Tendulkar and Lara won in plenty.....hearts of spectators all over the world.
Ponting undoubtedly has been the redoubtable batsman in cricket arena for years and may be in future he goes on to surpass some of Little Master's record but Tendulkar will remain greatest ever because he has lived up to the tag of 'Gentlemen's game',infact given it a new dimension in contempary cricketing era.He is the paragon of sportsmanship and has not only shown cricketers but also youngsters like me that agression in purpose is different from agression in action.And for this gentlemen demeanour of his,he is adulated around the world.And if some sceptics differ from me,just check out the pandemonium stadium plunges into when Tendulkar walks to 22 yards patch.And it hardly matters whether it is eden garden or mecca of cricket -Lords!!
ReplyDelete@Prabhash: I agree totally with you...esp the way the crowd explodes whenever he walks out to bat...be it Melbourne or Mumbai...
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