I'm glad someone finally had the guts to point out Dravid was better. If you look at all the major test victories -in Pakistan, in Australia, Windies and SA Dravid has been the most critical factor. The person who posted he had not made any runs against the top bowlers is just plain wrong. It takes guts, discipline, concentration and an indefatigable spirit to do well in tests - qualities that I admire more than a gorgeous cover drive.

Also remember in tests Dravid has not been a stonewaller, his strike rate is the same as Tendulkar's - look at the figures. Just because he does it in 4 singles vs a risky four actually makes him superior in the test version. Even in ODIs, would you consider K Srikkant to be a stonewaller ? His strike rate and Dravid's are the same

Its about time we Indian fans started giving the real master his due.

Sam, San Jose, CA

OK, records, match winning, statistics are good!! but one should never forget the entertaining aspect of the game. I am a huge fan of Sachin just because it is so entertaning while he is playing. In the last 3 or 4 years it's been boring even to watch Sachin game. I couldn't get the strike rate of Dravid on CricInfo it is 42.49 which is equal to 2.54 runs per over. You can imagine how interesting will be to watch a match with 2.54 runs per over. I couldn't get Sachin's Strike Rate but I can bet it will be way higher that that just because I watched so many times he scoring at a faster rate. None of the statistics may not make sense if there is no entertaining value, after all that is the reason why we specatators watch any game. I remember so many people so many times including me going away from watching the game the moment Sachin gets out and when Dravid and company starts batting. This is all with due respect for Dravid, would ve loved if he scored little more quickly!!!

pRASASD, Las Vegas , USA /NV

While there is no argument that Dravid has been the piller of Indian Cricket since 2000, there are lot of other aspects that people have forgotten. To be fair to Tendulkar, this game started sliding after his recurring Back, Tennis Elbow injuries. There was an article that i read recently that, Tendulkar's back injury almost paralyized his Spinal cord and only a man of Sachin's character could bounce back. How many players have made combacks after having two operations for Tennis Elbow. Eveyone agrees that once you have injury, you cannot play certain shots due to the way your body angles etc. I am sure we will see a different sachin in next 12-14 months now that he is back to 100% fitness.

Second important point is, Dravid definetly has built tall scores, however how many times have we see Sachin come and play a blinder Crushing opposition bowlers to dust and then have Rahul, Ganguly etc build upon. This is where i would rate Sachin higher.

Ravi, Hyderabad, India, AP

Compare the scoreboards of all the matches that Sachin scored a hundred with the ones that Dravid scored and also look at the opposing bowlers.

Roshan, Houston,

Yeah, I totally agree with Tyrone. The conclusion that Rahul has better average than Tendulkar is comes to nothing when you consider the early 90's regards to indian cricket. Tendulkar was the lone ranger for close to 8/9yrs for india and definitely he wasn't part of the winning teams though he contributed immensely. Thus lack of ability of other 10 guys shouldn't take away any thing from his performances. Where as the case of Rahul is different for the reason that Tendulkar was at peak of his powers for intial yrs of his international cricket, allowing him to settle down and play for his time. Regards to average comparison with number of tests, did the author care enough for age as well? Tendulakar was all of 16 when he debuted and has taken up the mantle to be lone figter for such a long time? The overall average is nothing to be worried about as well as Rahul is yet to climb the last peak of his career yet and if you look history, batsmen tend to slow down towards the sunset.

Dinakar, Dusseldorf, Germany / NRW

well, actually technically and statisticaly there are several boxers in history that could be termed superior to muhammad ali.
who cares?
there was only one ali.
there's only one sachin.

p.mitra, pune, india

Probably Eric does not know cricket or a die-hard fan of Tendulkar. Tendulkar still survives because of such fans. Just to let these people know of some of Dravid's achievements:
2003-04 Australia series, especially win in adelaide.
2000-01 Australian tour to india - world record partnership with Lakshman
Centuries in Johanesburg against donald and pollock.
Double century in rawalpindi, centuries in lahore and faisalabad, record making centuries in both innings in Kolkatta.against Pakistan.
As far as average is concerned, Dravid and Tendulkar are more or less same against Australia and SouthAfrica, but Dravid is atleast 20 more than Tendulkar against Pakistan.
Leave alone the statistics, leave alone the individual records, Dravid has atleast two significant match winning contributions one in adelaide(2003), one in kolkatta(2001). Can you mention one such innings of tendulkar?

Balasubramanian, Chennai, India

To have a chance to win you need 1 or more partership of 100 or more with one batsman going on to make a hundred. When Tendulkar makes a hundred its rare that someone accompany him for long. But in case of Dravid most of the time he has someone else score in the 70s/80s or more. But for India winning or not winning I will more often than not put the blame on our bowlers. You guys should be happy that both these guys are batting for India rather than bickering on who is greater than who. I would have them both in any all time Indian time.

Roshan, Houston,

Dravid's exploits have come against relatively weaker attacks. He has been a failure against a full-fledged Australia attack. His exploits in Australia in 2003-2004 could be primarily attributed to the fact that Mcgrath/Warne were absent and Gillespie and Lee were half fit. He was a total failure against the Aussies in 1999-00 when they had Mcgrath and their best attack . Even during the 2005 series in India he wasn't a great success and could not contribute to a single Indian win, although he did manage to spend some time in the middle. Another fact that goes against dravid is that he is predominantly a leg-side player and can just feed on half volleys on the off-side. You hardly see him play the ball on the up.. In all Dravid innings bar the one played in jamaica(in 2006), he has taken the onus of blunting the attack where as the others around him were going for the strokes. Take for instance his 148 in Headingley(193 sach,128 Gang), 270 in Rawalpindi(parthiv 79,gang/lax 70 each)

Harry, Hyderabad, India

There is no doubt Dravid,Tendulkar and Laxman are the top three indian batsamen who can play at any conditions.But I dont see comparing the statstical test average of dravid and tendulkar has any meaning. Though tendulkar started 6.5 years ahead he didnot have as many oppurtunities to play against weaker oppositions like Zimbabwe as often as we do now.

Jeyarama, Chennai, India

The view that Dravid is a better Test bat than Sachin has gained currency in the last few years - since the Indian Teams Tour of England in 2002. This was the start of Dravid's purple patch, and Sachin's "mortal" phase.

Dravid has contributed handsomely to Indian victories at Headingley, Adelaide and Rawalpindi in particular. His batting in this phase has lifted his career average to its current level of 57.46.

Sachin was averaging 58 when he started India's last tour of Australia, but his inconsistent performance since then has resulted in his current average of 55+. He too contributed to India's victory at Headingley, Multan (both near double century knocks.

Dravid has been scoring heavily when the best bowlers of the current generation were absent: eg. In Australia in 2002 - Shane Warne and McGrath were absent. In Pakistan Wasim Akram and Waqar had retired. So his best years have come when the best bowlers have either retired, or not playing. Same is true of Ponting. Think...

Nitin Samarth, Mumbai, India

Dravid is the best batsmen, the Indian cricket has produced, especially when we talk about test cricket. He can be compared to any of the modern day greats, when it comes to test cricket, but i think on an overall basis Tendulkar takes the lead with his one day performances.

Saqib Shahnawaz, Dublin, Ireland

The biggest thing that prevents any sane cricket follower from putting Dravid or say a Ponting above Tendulkar -and yes in test cricket - is the fact that like Ponting, Dravid's peak came post 2000 till now, which was and is an era bereft of quality fast bowlers and most importantly 'ferocious' fast bowlers. His record against quality spin - read Warne and Murali - is also questionable. Further when Dravid reached his peak - and in all his 'match-winning' knocks - he has had able support either from the little man himself, Laxman, Ganguly or Sehwag. Tendulkar's peak in the 90s was ridden with virtual solos, a fact that he shares with the other indian great, one Sunil Gavaskar. This not to take away anything from Dravid's greatness - he along with Gavaskar and Sachin forms the trio of India's greatest - but to put him ahead of Sachin is bit too much to digest. 'Nice guy' persona does not equal to 'Greatest Indian batsman' epithet!

Supratik, Dubai, UAE

For those who have followed Indian Cricket during the greater part of the 90's, there wouldn't be any doubt who has been the greatest Indian Cricketer of all time. Here was a team of no hopers who would regularly get to 30/5 and then somehow get to 220/10 because a little man ends up scoring 125 of those. Here was a team of cowards who would get walloped by the likes of Donald, McGrath and Wasim at their prime till this little fella stepped out to make us feel proud being an Indian cricket fan -- those were days we never bothered about winning because we were more concerned about losing our pride in getting walloped. The kind of goosebumps that I get even today thinking about those days is unmatched.

With all due regards to Dravid, Ganguly and VVS, I'll have to say that their best years coincided with the making of the great Indian middle order -- whenever they contributed in a win there always was a second contribution. when SRT had his golden moments, he was the one man standing.

Shubhankar, Bangalore, India

Dravid is the mainstay and probably a more mportant wicket these days but Tendulkar, like Lara, is the one with the A game that cant be matched.

If i had one day to live, id watch reruns of Tendulkar's greatest hits.

Dravid wins more matches but Tendulkar is the match winner, if that makes sense.

They are not comparable, and that is the beauty of cricket.

danny Bhandari, Bondi Junction, NSW

It is True that Dravind was the reason why Ganguly's captaincy record look decent. Ganguly was almost a non-playing captain. As regards Sachin, most of his runs have been against weaker opposition and against strong teams when the situation is bvery easy and not under idfficult conditions. Dravid on the other hand has made his batting count on every difficult situation and never caring for records.

Shrikant, Germantown, US

The author himself has given a hint why Tendulkar is greater than dravid. From 50 to 100 test Dravid's average progressed from 52.3 to 57.8. Incase of Tendulkar it progressed from 49.8 to 58. More telling are the figures when you compare after 25 tests. Dravid 57.5 to 57.8 and Sachin 44.8 to 58. What does it say? Sachin was kid a when he started playing for India. Even though he was genius he couldn't perfom so consistently and started perfoming well only after he reached a relatively matured age of 19/20. Dravid joined as an experienced pro at 22 plus years of age (not his fault). Even then I remember he struggled a lot for initial couple of years (It was really painful watching him those days). And that was the time when Tendulakar was at his peak and didn't get enough support. Reversely when Dravid was at his peak he got support from Laxman, Saurav and Sachin. And that's why many of his big innings has translated to wins. While Dravid is a very good batsman, Sachin is the genius.

Satyajit, Hyderabad, India

This is a very interesting article, missing one more vital statistic. One of Dravid's career highlight is his overseas average of almost 63-64, which is significantly higher than any of the current greats like Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara, Hayden, Kallis, Inzi. None of them average above 55 away from home.

However, we should not forget that when Tendulkar played, the 90s bowling generation was one of the finest and at their prime, with the likes of Waqar, Wasim, Donald, Ambrose, Walsh, McDermott. Also, Tendulkar invariably had to shepherd Indian batting alone, except on couple of times when Azhar was in great form. Dravid was fortunate to have Sehwag, VVS, Sachin, Ganguly to support him, score fast, and take pressure away from him.

Inspite of all this, I do agree that Dravid is indeed better than Tendulkar.

Praveen, Michigan, USA,

Ask any real Indian cricket fan and they'll tell you that Dravid is the better batsman. Why? He consistently produces and when he does India invariably win. He is a real leader, something Tendulkar is not.

Hari, Canberra, Australia ,

Indians remember only theatrics and dramatics... that's why Sachin in preferred to Dravid and Ganguly is preferred to Laxman. Ask the Aussies to select between the four and they will recollect it was Laxman and Dravid who gave them a pasting in Eden Gardens and Adelaide.

Sachin and Ganguly scored big runs (Sydney and Brisbane) but it mattered for nothing.

So long...

Harish, Mumbai, India

Though its interesting to have statistics of two of the greatest batsmen to play for India, its unfair to compare both of them. It's like comparing Gavaskar and Vishwanath, comparing Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh, comparing Clive Llyod and Richards, comparing Ian Botham and Flintoff.

Even if some of the above mentioned players have played in different generations, we still remember them for their cricket. That is what exactly Dravid and Tendulkar will be remembered for.

As for the difference is their stats, it shows the brand of cricket they play. If Dravid ever hits the first ball he faces from Warne for a six, it will be remembered for centuries. But Tendulkar will do it time and again.

There are not many players who come in the same position as Dravid and play attacking cricket. Players with an attacking play are more popular and players like Dravid arent.

To sum it up, Tendulkar is a genius and Dravid a great player. Simple.

Naveen Aysola, Bangalore,

As balanced a piece as one can find.Dravid is like his batting understated but extremely effective.Over the last few years he has blossomed as a player thanks to the one-day influence that is such a feature of cricket in the sub-continent.To my mind he is easily the most valuable test batsman that we have.Selections like the "all time greats" actually means very little in terms of real worth.If India is to do well in England Dravid is the key.I hope he does well for his and our sake.

sridhar, bangalore, India

Who is better? Each person is different. Even Identical twins! How will we then ever be able to judge? Should we? The answer surely is a NO! Look at the performance of these players. Different people - Sachin, Lara, Dravid; different situations Opener, One drop, middle order; Result - Stupendous.

The pressure and the pounding they have taken under such scrutiny ......kudos!

Rajesh, dubai, UAE

Dravid is one of the best batsmen that India has ever produced.. no doubts whatsoever. However, nobody can take huge huge expectations that whole India has from Sachin Tendulkar. Statistics are 'nice to have' things. But I bet even today wehn Sachin goes out to bat, even his die-hard critics want him to score out opposition.
All of them seem to forget that till 1998-99, it was only Sachin who held Indian batting line up. It was only around 1998-99 that we recognised Dravid & Ganguly as match winners.
Besides, Sachin is beyond competition. His modesty, down-to-earth attitude and passion for the game kills all envious feelings about him.
Hats off to the greatest batsmen our generation has ever seen !!!!

Shriniwas Gadgil, Mumbai, INDIA

I have long thought Dravid to be the better batsman, both in viewing and in statisics. For his entire career, Tendulkar has been burdened with this ridiculous media-invented notion that he was as good as Bradman, which he was never going to live up to.

Rob, Christchurch, New Zealand

Maybe, the English writers should think about putting a roof on Wimbledon, instead of constantly chucking up statistics about why Tendulkar is not that good. You guys can all say the other players are better, but a person with half a brain will realise Tendulkar started playing in the 1990's with a plethora of fast bowlers, players like Ponting and Dravid came in when fast bowling has been on the decline, and personally, I love Dravid.

It angers me when Hayden was made to look like a toddler against fast bowlers, and then has come and flayed attacks since 2001. You cannot mention his name in the same breadth as Tendulkar, Lara, Dravid.

Peace out

Tyrone Peters, Sydney,

It is not new to compare Dravid and Tendulkar. As long as Tendulkar is shown to be greater, it is fine. But the moment, the comparison ends in favour of Dravid, the critic is termed a Tendulkar basher.There can only be two types of cricket lovers - Tendulkar fans or Tendulkar bashers.
There cannot be a section called Dravid fans - they pretend to be Dravid fans only to belittle Tendulkar. What an idea!

B.R.Krishnan, Chennai, India

Thank God, at least someone said or wrote down what I have been saying, obserrving ang thinking for all those years. I am sorrry, but Sachin is not a match winner for india, Dravid is, even Ganguly once told personally to tendulkar that he does not want his centuries, but want him to win the games, that was in AUstralia in B&H tournament with Pak ans Aus. But he is the ebst in terms of converting his 50s to 100s and then after that wh cares, he also doesn't.

sam, st.louis, usa

Simple question, when India is trying to avoid follow on and god asks you who you want to bat, who would U choose, Sachin or Rahul.. I would any day prefer Rahul.,..he will save India

Mayur, Santa Clara, USA/CA

dravid has mostly failed to score much against the best attacks of this generation. He failed consistently against mcgrath-warne, akram-younis and donald pollock almost always.
Tendulkar afcourse does fail agaisnt the above but far less than dravid. Dravid besides his innings at calcutta pretty much was a no show against these bowlers. That for me is important in comparing batsmen. The best batsmen of any generation always played a few innings of exceptional calibre agaisn the best bowlers of their time. Dravid however flopped in this regard.
He did do well agasint ambrose-walsh but those innings hardly stood out.

Eric, mumbai, India

Well, Dravid has been a better performer for India in tests than tendulkar. People who wax eloquent about tendulkar usually confuse his one-day and test performances.

The fact remains that tendulkar does not the staying character that a test batsman requires. He rarely threatens to go on and on, like a laxman or dravid. His double centuries have always been hard fought and not beautiful (sydney is a prime example). Tendulkar's game though is superior to dravid in one-days.

Same is the case with Laxman and Ganguly. Laxman is a much better test player than ganguly, and if ganguly had not been a captain, he would have replaced him long ago. Ganguly though, again, is probably more suited to the one-day game than laxman. I believe the fourth middle order position should always have been a toss-up between ganguly and yuvraj.

Sree, Denver, CO

Just like the others said, average is important; but thats not the only thing that counts.

Tendulkar has excellent average; lots of hundreds; lots of runs. But when you hear the name "tendulkar", what comes in to mind is his VERSION OF GAME. A defensive player stonewalling doesn't comet mind; but someone taking the attack to the bowlers.

If you only look at the average, you can argue Dravid is a better player than LARA, which I think is a joke.

Lara and Sachin are geniuses because they have that special "extra" quality. Dravid is a great player too :)

Fez, Toronto, Canada

Well its not only scoring runs which makes a player great.... but it depends on the way they do it. For most of his career dravid s batting was so boring that even the staunchest of indian supporters wanted him to get out. Nowadays he has definitely improved a lot .... but i think the greatest players dominate the stage and i am sorry to say that dravid did never not even once dominated a battle. he will never be considered as a great player. He is good... that is all.

vamsi, usa,

I reckon its unfair to compare the two. Sachin would have a couple extra shots in his armoury always than Rahul. Nevertheless, Rahul has his own special position which Tendulkar can not fill. So, its like comparing Hobbs and Bradman. Arguments may always be brought, but Tendulkar may be remembered that little bit extra more. But again, Rahul has his own place which none can fill, not even Tendulkar.

utkarsh, bangalore, karnataka

Dravid is not only a class batsmen, but a true gentleman. Having met most of the team last week on their tour game at Sussex it was Dravid who stood head and shoulders above the rest of the arrogant team. He stopped, signed autographs & took pictures with his adoring fans, while others huffed and puffed there way through.

His stats speaks for himself, while batman come and go Dravid diggs deep and respects his wicket. He may not be the flair player everyone pays to see, but he has all the shots when required, and uses his brain in choosing to use them.

Credit must be given where its due. And in Dravid's case it has been long over.............

Indain fan, London, England

Dravid is more reliable than Tendulkar. He has saved India more than tendulkar. He is not selfish. He is a team man. He scored runs , when it mattered. He is instrumental for the victories against Australia in India and Australia. He is more interested in partnerships than hundreds, that is the key for Team's success.

Francis Lazar, Bangalore, India

Great article. Dravid surely deserves to be in an all time Indian XI. However, just to clear one thing up, Sachin has scored centuries away against all the teams bar Zimbabwe, who no longer play tests anyway. Plus he has scored centuries at home against all teams bar South Africa (came close...got 97) and Bangladesh (no home series played as of yet). Dravid has failed to score home centuries against Bangladesh (same reason as for Sachin), England, South Africa, and Sri Lanka (2 nineties).

This isn't to denigrate Dravid, I just think that Sachins poor run of form for the past few years has made everyone forget just how great he actually was. Anyway they are both invaluable to the team....pity Sehwag couldn't keep up his superb run of form, he was fantastic too!

Ashok Menon, Leeds, UK

rahul dravid is definitely the best batsman of the generation....to compare him with another great...tendulkar is harming both of them....we are proud to have 2 of the best to have played the game...

AJ, atlanta, USA

Tendulkar will always be the 1st of India`s golden generation. It is on his shoulders that players lie Dravid, Laxman & Ganguly have prospered. In the 90s Tendulakar & Azhar were the only 2 standing between defeat and a draw. Now India can think about winning :-). Credit where credit is due, Dravid is awesome abroad, but SRT will never truly get the credit he deserves. He has faced a golden generation of bowlers (Khan, Akram, Waqar, Ambrose, Walsh, McGrath, Warne, Muriili, Pollack) and is still here

J Nanda, London, UK

Its more about what kind of an impact a player can have. If we want simple statistics, we can whine about Michael Bevan in ODI's - smart player he is, but no-one can put him amongst the game's greats.

Sachin has been a GOD in India not just for run-scoring reasons. He's been under pressure ever since he started shaving, having to deliver each and every time when his team was 2 for 2 or 10 for 2. And the way he delivered them all, my god, isn't that worth a million bucks!

Also, this article highlights that Dravid is polite and modest - Sachin has been the epitome of simplicity and modesty ever since he arrived and still people are fans of that quality in him. I'm not trying to belittle Dravid here but the attention leading to Sachin shouldn't mislead us to believing that he acts like a star.

I'm a huge fan of Dravid nonetheless but Sachin is always better than Dravid - just like Michael Schumacher is always better than Fernando Alonso!

Shankar, houston, TX, USA

Sameer,

These days opposition wants Dravid's wicket more than Sachin. They know that If Dravid scores India will win.

Sandeep, Atlanta, USA

I am a hard core Sachin fan, but lately, I have started to respect Dravid more. When he started as a batsmen, he was often not good in one-days. But he reinvented himself, first as a wicketkeeper, where he provided stellar service, and later as a finisher who could hit for the max. For all due respect, Tendulkar has never adjusted to other positions once he started opening in one-dayers. Dravid on the other hand, can play any position and adjust his game.

Another thing about Dravid is that he often stays till the end, especially in matches that India wins. Tendulkar often has perished in the last hour before a victory was sealed. His team mates were often spineless and threw their wickets away when Tendulkar was out (I wonder if someone could compile stats for this). For this Dravid deserves credit.

Some of Dravid's match-winning prowess should also be attributed to Ganguly, who in his prime was one of the best leaders India ever had.

Prabhu, Atlanta, USA

i agree with prairie, its just about a mismatch of purple patches. Anyway, if you look at the trends, tendulkar got better and better and dravid was up and down. Who knows if tendulkar hits a purple patch again and dravid goes into a slump this time. It all evens out in the end for the two greats and perhaps tendulkar will end up with higher average, and mind you tendulkars match winning innings have been wasted by some poor bowling and lack of support from other batsman. Wish Laxman was there in early 90s. Lucky Dravid

Upadhyayula Murthy, London, UK

Firstly, let me agree with Bobby P and say 'Rahul, you are selling yourself short mate'. You are as good as all the other names you have mentioned. In fact, along with these names, you are not just greats of your era but part of cricket's all-time greats.

To me these two are kinda like how Shaq and Kobe were for Lakers or Shaq and Dwyane Wade for Miami. Shaq is the big, intimidating presence in the team that gets everyones attention and opponents main target, like Sachin is. And Kobe and Dwyane are the work horses who run around the field and run the opponents ragged. A role Rahul does so well. TOGETHER they form a formidable combination strengthening the team.

Tho they have diff styles of play, I guess its only natural for these two to be compared as they play in the same team, against same opponents and under same conditions. Yes, Sachin has an eye catching game, the peoples hero, and stats is a 'mini-skirt', But, I applaud the author for singing on behalf an UNSUNG HERO.

Oscar, Colombo, Sri Lanka

You Indian fans are too parochial for your own good. Sure, very little in cricket comes close to matching the beauty of a Tendulkar drive.... but very little comes close to the magntude of winning a test when folowing on, or when facing a first innings opposition score of 500+. You really do underappreciate your REAL star in rahul Dravid - he may not be as attacking as Tendulkar, he may not be as pretty, but he sure as hell has all the substance and over the years has contributed far more to Indian victories than Tendulkar - maybe the reason India haven't dominated test cricket despite having some of the best talent in the world is because the fans put more emphasis on looking pretty than WINNING. Dravid is hard, has heart, is a fighter, and saves his best for when it is most needed.

Sam D, Bathurst,

Dravid started his international career as more mature man, hence a more mature cricketer. Starting at 16, Sachin, as your stats suggest, found his going hard in early part of his career. Statistically, this discounts Sachin's efforts. As B. Sameer Kumar said, "statistics are like miniskirts," they never give out the complete picture. On the other hand, if you have watched cricket over last 20 years, yo would know why Sachin still remains the main stalwart, and Dravid, his deputy (in importance).

Guru Suman, Baltimore, USA

Rahul is one of the greatest middle order bat that India is produced and the stats prove right. This article is great and it is high time that India gives him the recognition he deserves.

LeeHong, San Francisco,

another Tendulkar basher is born :-)

vj, San Diego, US

Sure Mr. Kidd, you are yet to realise the difference between a great player and a genius. Its not about the stats but its about the beauty of the game, to be able to transcend the ordinary and to be majestic and thats what Tendulkar is all about. If you have ever watched a Tendulkar straight drive with minimum fuss, if you have ever watched a Tendulkar silken drive through covers, if you have ever watched a Tendulkar back foot punch you'd perhaps never even attempt to write this.

Kiran Gireesan, Bangalore, India

No, it is not blasphemy.

Dravid's purple patch coincided with the Indian team's success and Tendulkar purple patch in the mid 90's was with a team that played as well as perhaps WI play now.

Everyone expected Tendulkar to do well and play without pressure when the rest of the middle order started to score and for some reason that did not take place.

However, for some of us who have followed India in the early to mid 1990's, he was the lone fighter when everyone else in the team just seemed to be filling in the numbers.

Prairie boy, Regina, Canada

That was a very good compilation of statistics, but as you might be well aware of it, "Statistics are like mini-skirts - they give you good ideas but hide the most important things". I think it is true that anyone among Saurav, Dravid or V.V.S could have been the best Indian batsman of their generation had it not been for the "Tendulkar Phenomenon". Something I'm sure Stuart McGill would relate to in regards to Shane Warne's presence.

But statistics do not reflect the whole story. I think most writers who compare & conclude most often forget that cricket is a team sport. Sachin;s presence in fact has made life easier for Dravid & Saurav as the primary target of the opposition is always Sachin. Hence,he more often than not uses up all their creative time in the team meetings.. Its the same effect as Maradona drawing defenders towards him to create space for other team mates to score or a Micheal Jordan creating space for teammates. Geniuses not only succeed but help others too.

B.Sameer Kumar, Hyderabad, India

tendulkar is always best

vijay, chennai, tn

Rahul, you sell yourself short my friend. When you are averaging 58 you are an all time great whether you like it or not.

From the list of those who you say are the greatest of your generation - Lara, Ponting, Tendulkar and Waugh, only Ponting's average is near yours. The others are undoubtedly greats for differing reasons, but you have to put yourself alongside them im afraid!

Bobby P, London, England