Tendulkar in the same league with Bradman: Wright

[Mamu]

12 Mar 2009, 2016 hrs IST, PTI Print EMail Discuss Share Save Comment Text:

HAMILTON: Sachin Tendulkar is in the same league with Don Bradman and the batting maestro has it in him to become the first cricketer to hit 100 international centuries, former India coach John Wright said on Thursday. Wright said he expects Tendulkar to continue at least till the 2011 World Cup and retire only when he desires. "I always felt he is in the same line as Bradman and he has the potential to possibly get a 100 international hundreds combining Tests and One-dayers," said Wright, who had a successful five-year stint with the Indian team. "To do something like that would be truly Bradmanesque," the former New Zealand captain said. Incidentally, Bradman himself found some similarity between his own and Tendulkar's batting. Tendulkar will turn 36 on April 24 but Wright said going by form -- the Mumbaikar hit a sublime 163 off 133 balls before retiring hurt in the third India-New Zealand ODI at Christchurch -- he expects the Indian to continue tormenting the bowlers. "Judging by the last game in Christchurch, I think he has lot of cricket left in him and he'll decide (when to go). "I was thinking about it, he has got everything. The thing with him is that with a deft touch, or flick or a slight manoeuvre he puts the ball in great speed. I expect him to be part of the Indian team for a little while because obviously there is a World Cup (in 2011) out there," Wright said. The Kiwi reckoned it's only a matter of staying fit for Tendulkar. "I think the spirit is fine and obviously he has got great love for the game," he said. Wright also lavished praise of India's pace spearhead Zaheer Khan and said, "I'm really impressed by Zaheer Khan. With me, he was still learning that time. Now he has become one of the top 3-4 pace bowlers of the world and I respect that."

[Holysmoke]

Nothing new. PS - :regular_smile:

[Mamu]

Nothing new. PS - :regular_smile:

But a lot of YOU guys call Zaheer Abbas the "Asian Bradman"?:hehe:

[Ram]

When people like Ian Chappell or Sanjay Manjrekar called for Tendulkar to retire, you obviously ignore them. They're just trying to create headlines. When a guy like John Wright opines about Sachin, one must take note. After all, he's one of the few non-Indians who has had a very long-term and up-close relationship with Sachin, in his capacity as India's coach. He definitely knows what he's saying.

"Judging by the last game in Christchurch, I think he has lot of cricket left in him and he'll decide (when to go).

This is a very interesting comment. Judging by it, Wright seems sort of pleasantly surprised by the way Sachin batted in that innings, like as though he did not expect that Sachin had it in him to play such a huge innings in ODI.

[Fontaine]

Wright also lavished praise of India's pace spearhead Zaheer Khan and said, "I'm really impressed by Zaheer Khan. With me, he was still learning that time. Now he has become one of the top 3-4 pace bowlers of the world and I respect that."

Good to see others acknowledging what I've been saying for a while now!!!

[Holysmoke]

But a lot of YOU guys call Zaheer Abbas the "Asian Bradman"?:hehe:

Zaheer Abbas? Who the fk is that stupid to even compare him with Bradman? Certainly not me:eyedance:

[DomainK]

Bradman is overrated.

[graphic23]

Bradman is overrated.

No, I'm pretty sure he was innings-rated.

[Holysmoke]

No' date=' I'm pretty sure he was innings-rated.[/quote'] :ohno: :sostressed:

[suraj]

I think Tendlya > Bradman.

[satishg]

I think Tendlya > Bradman.

x2 he is the greatest ever and i think the Aussies do know that fact :winky: its just because of that 99.94 number that Bradman is rated higher than SRT

[Anakin]

x2 he is the greatest ever and i think the Aussies do know that fact :winky: its just because of that 99.94 number that Bradman is rated higher than SRT

Precisely, but like everything else, specially numbers without context are meaningless.

[riya]

Funny certain people say numbers don't matter .Yet in a comparitive study they will come up with statistics first to prove X is better than Y .

[satishg]

numbers do matter but as Anakin pointed out the numbers should have some meaning attached to them..i mean Bradman plundered the poms and almost 90% of his runs came against them..hey its not his fault that he din get to play against the other countries that much but just because of his imposing average against a handful of countries shd not guarantee unquestionable greatness ever..i mean we all know its close to impossible to have such a high average but what wud have Bradman done if he had played in this day and age..well we wud never know that..but as Sachin says a great of one era wud always be a great in some other era too but Bradman wudnt for sure have such a high average today and if he had played along with SRT, we wud have definitely known that SRT is the greatest ever

[riya]

numbers do matter but as Anakin pointed out the numbers should have some meaning attached to them..i mean Bradman plundered the poms and almost 90% of his runs came against them..hey its not his fault that he din get to play against the other countries that much but just because of his imposing average against a handful of countries shd not guarantee unquestionable greatness ever..i mean we all know its close to impossible to have such a high average but what wud have Bradman done if he had played in this day and age..well we wud never know that..but as Sachin says a great of one era wud always be a great in some other era too but Bradman wudnt for sure have such a high average today and if he had played along with SRT' date= we wud have definitely known that SRT is the greatest ever

Yeah Bradman can thank his lucky stars for that .I am not into discussion .But Bradman the man who faced body line series >>>>>>>>>>>>>>any of them in any era.

[satishg]

Yeah Bradman can thank his lucky stars for that .I am not into discussion .But Bradman the man who faced body line series >>>>>>>>>>>>>>any of them in any era.

hey i never tried to disregard Bradmans achievement at all, i just feel that the pressure that Sachin faces is incomparable and to still consistently deliver the way he has been doing for the past 20 years is something unfathomable..anyway everyone has their own perspective so i just feel that Sachin is the greatest ever

[graphic23]

numbers do matter but as Anakin pointed out the numbers should have some meaning attached to them..i mean Bradman plundered the poms and almost 90% of his runs came against them..hey its not his fault that he din get to play against the other countries that much but just because of his imposing average against a handful of countries shd not guarantee unquestionable greatness ever..i mean we all know its close to impossible to have such a high average but what wud have Bradman done if he had played in this day and age..well we wud never know that..but as Sachin says a great of one era wud always be a great in some other era too but Bradman wudnt for sure have such a high average today and if he had played along with SRT' date=' we wud have definitely known that SRT is the greatest ever[/quote'] I just don't agree. Every single player at that time was only playing against a handful of countries in a handful of grounds. How come they don't average > 75, let alone 99.94? No one was even close. Plenty of people now come close to Sachin - Lara, Ponting, etc. Sure they don't have 16000+ runs in one format and 12000+ in another but their averages suggest that they are quite close to Sachin as batsmen. Moreover, Bradman was (even if grudgingly) universally accepted as the best batsman of his era by a long margin. We still debate today (not us but some experts) whether Lara or Ponting are better than Sachin. I might opine that Sachin >> * - but still, there will be debates. Apart from Archie Jackson, no one has been compared to Bradman. Bradman is the greatest batsman ever because he was enormously talented - has nothing to do with contextual numbers. I can right now come up at least of couple of places where Bradman has Sachin beat. Sachin has never made 500 runs in a series. Bradman made some 900+ runs in England at one point in 5 test matches. Bradman's 4th innings average is much better than Sachin's. I will accept that Sachin is the same league - but better? No way.

[riya]

hey i never tried to disregard Bradmans achievement at all' date=' i just feel that the pressure that Sachin faces is incomparable and to still consistently deliver the way he has been doing for the past 20 years is something unfathomable..anyway everyone has their own perspective so i just feel that Sachin is the greatest ever[/quote'] Fair enough .His pressure,yes i always maintained that he would have much better statistics had he played for any other team .The baggage of expectation is simply too much . But let us not carried away by blind love .We are comparing some one who had double the average (almost).Simply without watching, arriving at opinions won't help . Those bowlers were crap.Based on what ?Still such astronomical figures cannot be denied. I hate comparing players of different eras and making assumptions like what would ahve been.Simply not fair . I wasn't taking on u.Making opinions such as Bradman is overrated and making such an opinion as fact is what i hate .Overrated ? what the bloody heck ?

[satishg]

I just don't agree. Every single player at that time was only playing against a handful of countries in a handful of grounds. How come they don't average > 75' date= let alone 99.94? No one was even close. Plenty of people now come close to Sachin - Lara, Ponting, etc. Sure they don't have 16000+ runs in one format and 12000+ in another but their averages suggest that they are quite close to Sachin as batsmen. Moreover, Bradman was (even if grudgingly) universally accepted as the best batsman of his era by a long margin. We still debate today (not us but some experts) whether Lara or Ponting are better than Sachin. I might opine that Sachin >> * - but still, there will be debates. Apart from Archie Jackson, no one has been compared to Bradman. Bradman is the greatest batsman ever because he was enormously talented - has nothing to do with contextual numbers. I can right now come up at least of couple of places where Bradman has Sachin beat. Sachin has never made 500 runs in a series. Bradman made some 900+ runs in England at one point in 5 test matches. Bradman's 4th innings average is much better than Sachin's. I will accept that Sachin is the same league - but better? No way.

maybe they were not as talented as Sachin or Bradman..so u do accept that Bradman and Sachin are in the same league rite..well i know it is stupid to compare players of different era but i feel that if Sachin and Bradman had played in the same era we wud have definitely got the answers we were looking for..well since that din happen it has been left to the statistics part and we all know the where the answer lies if we take statistics in consideration.. I agree with wat u said about Bradman being enormously talented but likewise Sachin is too infact i think he is even more talented than Bradman as a batsman..anyway it is subjective and u can say that he is not..

[Dravid]

bradman is in sachins league :D