Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar - The difference between a Prince and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/A-King-c41197 (Part 1) - Opinion
Cricket has been blessed with some of the most astute ambassadors of batsmanship that the world has ever seen. There has been the flare of Viv Richards, the divinity of Donald Bradman and the resilience of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JH-Kallis-c1692, which have left cricket followers
overawed.
These players however, have not managed to polarize opinion about their status as the best batsmen that the world has ever seen, as much as two men who have made headlines time and time again. These two greats have drawn comparisons with the likes of Kallis,
Inzamam Ul Haq, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Andrew-Flower-c44362, yet tend to surpass them in terms of strength, erudition, dexterity and dynamism. They are undoubtedly the greatest batsmen that the game of cricket has ever known and their contribution to the sport is monumental.
One of them has carried the hearts of millions of passionate supporters on his shoulders for more than a decade, where the other has single handedly kept a side like the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 on the map, in times when the team had been faltering miserably. These two
diminutive, dangerous, diabolical and dexterous batsmen are Sachin Tendulkar and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Brian-Charles-Lara-c48471.
The latter has retired after constructing an extraordinary career, whereas the former continues to pile up runs with brazen frequency. Their contributions to India or the West Indies thus, need no explanation or justification. For any passionate cricket
lover who grew up watching these two batsmen bat, an array of top quality strokes comes to one’s mind when their names are mentioned. Their wrist work, cover drives, defensive strokes and penchant for scoring big had reasserted them as the most prized wickets
by their respective oppositions. They are greeted with standing ovations all around the world and a distinct http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Beau-Casson-c47541 could be heard around the ground, when they took guard. No other batting duo has been worshipped this far and this wide, in terms of gravity.
No other duo has however, polarized opinion amongst their diehard fans, over which of them was the better batsman. It might be an audacious claim to make, but, history, statistics and an impartial analysis, would consider Brian Lara to be just a tad more superior
to the Little Master from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mumbai-c820.
The reasons are not as obvious though. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SR-Tendulkar-c2556 has a phenomenal record, and has been hailed by Donald Bradman to be a replica of the Don himself. His is the finest player in terms of the number of runs he had managed to score, and his status as
the greatest player to emerge from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 would never be disputed. Numerous match winning accolades have come in the way of this mighty batsman and he is considered no less than a god by billions of supporters. It is perhaps the hype that Tendulkar has received
and the pressure that he has borne that has made him a great batsman.
Yet the fact remains, that Tendulkar lacked the ‘X’ factor that Lara had in his prime. The man from the Port of Spain did not have the privilege of playing in a team which had an array of top quality players at their disposal, where the likes of Sourav
Ganguly, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Azharuddin-c76823, were among Tendulkar’s contemporaries. The dashing left hander from Trinidad and Tobago also played in a time when he was indisputably, the best player in the team by a considerable margin. The West
Indies had weathered off in the distance after the early 1990s, where their status of being world champions and being invincible at the same time, becoming a thing of the past. Lara however, reinsured that the last spice of West Indian batting kept on peppering
salt less salad bowls, in times when those who devoured them were about to get fed up.
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