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Rank the 10,000 club

pardus

School Boy/Girl Captain
1. Brian Lara
2. Kumar Sangakkara
3. Sachin Tendulkar
4. Steve Waugh
5. Allan Border
6. Sunil Gavaskar
7. Ricky Ponting
8. Jacques Kallis
9. Rahul Dravid
10. Younis Khan
11. Shivnarine Chanderpaul
12. Mahela Jayawardene
13. Alastair Cook
 

_00_deathscar

International Debutant
Surprised at Waugh being rated so low...

1. Sachin Tendulkar
2. Brian Lara

3. Sunil Gavaskar
4. Steve Waugh
5. Ricky Ponting

6. Kumar Sangakkara
7. Rahul Dravid
8. Allan Border
9. Jacques Kallis
10. Younis Khan

11. Alastair Cook
12. Shivnarine Chanderpaul
13. Mahela Jayawardene

Gaps are to indicate levels/tiers. Between each tier players are somewhat interchangeable.
 

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I wonder - does Lara suffer in the estimation of people compared to Tendulkar because he's only the second, or perhaps even third best West Indian? He's better than Tendulkar in my estimation. The only thing that elevates Tendulkar is his ridiculous longevity and even that is overrated due to the huge periods of time late in his career that he wasn't contributing.

Now Tendulkar is in the top 10 batsmen of all time, but it's hard to argue he's definitively better than the prince.
 

Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
I wonder - does Lara suffer in the estimation of people compared to Tendulkar because he's only the second, or perhaps even third best West Indian? He's better than Tendulkar in my estimation. The only thing that elevates Tendulkar is his ridiculous longevity and even that is overrated due to the huge periods of time late in his career that he wasn't contributing.

Now Tendulkar is in the top 10 batsmen of all time, but it's hard to argue he's definitively better than the prince.
Possibly 4th West Indian. Sobers is definitely no 1 imo, but Viv and Headley (or vice versa) could be 2 and 3.
 

OverratedSanity

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If anything Lara's flair makes people overlook some aspects of his career where he was worse than a lot of other ATG batsmen. His overseas record is relatively meh and he had a very large chunk of his career from 1996-02 where apart from two famous series his output was seriously underwhelming. Also casuals (not on CW but elsewhere) overrate him because they know about his 400 and nothing else.
 

OverratedSanity

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Feel like defensive batsmen grow in stature with time. Flashy but relatively expensive pacers go the other way. Barrington and Border get much more love now whilst in their playing careers guys like May and Miandad were held in higher regard (as far as I know). Roberts, Thomson and Hall have gone the other way.
He wasn't even that defensive tbh. Just dreadful aesthetically. A lot of people still rate Inzi and yousuf over him when really it shouldnt be a contest.
 

Kraken

International 12th Man
Lara
Tendulkar
Ponting
Kallis
Sangakkara
Border
Waugh
Dravid
Gavaskar
Younis
Mahela
Chanderpaul
Cook
 

morgieb

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If anything Lara's flair makes people overlook some aspects of his career where he was worse than a lot of other ATG batsmen. His overseas record is relatively meh and he had a very large chunk of his career from 1996-02 where apart from two famous series his output was seriously underwhelming. Also casuals (not on CW but elsewhere) overrate him because they know about his 400 and nothing else.
Yeah that patch made me put Tendulkar over him. Lara's peaks were higher but Tendulkar was a fair bit more consistent, was at his best for around 15 years rather than like 6-7.

If he had actually scored runs during that phase (and given the attacks he had those ATG series against it's hard to understand why he didn't, plus that was the age where most bats are at their prime) then there'd be little question he's the #2 of all-time.
 

Bolo.

International Vice-Captain
The list of bats who would have been the number 2 bat of all time if their careers had been their peaks is enormous. Lara was more up and down than most greats, but he still isnt unique in this regard

Anyway, I go

Sachin
...
Dravid
Younis
Jayawardene, Cook, Chanders.

Other than Gavaskar, who I struggle to rank, nobody can challenge Sachin. He was at least as good as anyone else for much longer. All the middle guys are splitting hairs. My ranking of them would just depend on how Im feeling on the day.
 

Pap Finn Keighl

International Debutant
3 immortals
1. Sunil Gavaskar
2 Sachin Tendulkar
3. Brian Lara

Gap

Ponting
Sangakara
Waugh
Border
Kallis
Dravid

Gap

Younis
Chanderpaul
Cook / Mahela
 

_00_deathscar

International Debutant
I wonder - does Lara suffer in the estimation of people compared to Tendulkar because he's only the second, or perhaps even third best West Indian? He's better than Tendulkar in my estimation. The only thing that elevates Tendulkar is his ridiculous longevity and even that is overrated due to the huge periods of time late in his career that he wasn't contributing.
He was absolutely one of the world's best batsmen until 2010. In fact, in his second resurgence, his 2010 was his peak. Had a ridiculous year and season stretching through for 2010/2011.

So what are these 'huge periods of time' - his last 20 or so tests (i.e. 10% of his entire career)? A 20 test career has been used by some to justify ATG-ness.

It's fine to hold Lara to be better than Tendulkar, but at least come up with more valid reasons than "his longevity is overrated because he averaged mid 30s for 2 years for about 20 tests"
 
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Coronis

Cricketer Of The Year
Tendulkar
Lara
Sangakkara
Gavaskar
Ponting
Kallis
Border
Waugh
Dravid
Younis
Chanderpaul
Cook
Jayawardene

Lotta very close players there, I doubt my ranking would remain the same day to day.
 

_00_deathscar

International Debutant
If anything Lara's flair makes people overlook some aspects of his career where he was worse than a lot of other ATG batsmen. His overseas record is relatively meh and he had a very large chunk of his career from 1996-02 where apart from two famous series his output was seriously underwhelming. Also casuals (not on CW but elsewhere) overrate him because they know about his 400 and nothing else.
It's always swings and roundabouts isn't it? One way to look at it is that players who have absolutely monster series have their averages inflated by these series and can be seen to have huge differences in peaks/troughs (Smith seeming to be the exception along with Bradman of course). Not saying that is how I look at it, but it is one way to look at it.

In many ways, Sachin is basically a super powered Joe Root. Apart from a few years here and there (bound to happen in a 20 plus year career when you started playing at 16), he was generally consistently world class. I think someone mentioned you could always rely on Sachin to put up a hundred in any given series, regardless of conditions/form. But he's not the player who would make you two x 200-plus scores in the same series.

Ideally, in any given World XI/ATG-type test side, you'd have both players - the ones who you can rely on to put up a score regardless of everything, and the one who will make you the monster 200s and more. Lara and Sachin would have complemented each other well in the same team.
 
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