But statistics only mean anything if they allow for some kind of adjustment: no-one denies Grace his status despite a Test average of 32.29. Watching Ricky Ponting score a sublime, chanceless ton against England last night, another adjustment seems due.
It really doesn't need saying that Ponting and Tendulkar are not just contemporary greats, but worthy of comparison to anyone who's played the game. They are due that accolade of 100 centuries.
Ponting has 72 by the current measure, Sachin 69. But it feels like it's time to start counting their one-day international hundreds, too: Ponting has 28 of those, Sachin 44 [44!].
The argument against has always been that ODI hundreds were scored in reduced circumstances. Bowlers were limited in the number of overs they could send down, fields have been restricted, powerplays introduced and so on. Yet could anyone watch Ponting deliver last night, or in the World Cup Final of 2003 and say that those were innings any less brilliantly constructed, any less dominant or wilfull, any less pressured or easier than a nice afternoon knock in the LV county championship division two? Was the bowling any worse, the fielding any poorer?
Between them, Ponting and Tendulkar have played 763 ODIs - almost two solid years' worth. The structure of their careers will not allow them to get a hundred hundreds in the conventional manner, so maybe the conventional manner should change with the times.
If it did, Sachin would already be there, Ponting would have arrived last night, via a glorious knock in an international game. And it's not as if the change would open the floodgates: the great Lara would still have fallen short.
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I was one of those who believed that Ponting was through and his rapid decline was on the cards like Rahul.
He has come back very strongly in recent times and looks better than before.
Last night, those punches through cover was simply breath taking. A master at work alright.
I completely agree about combining one day and first class records, not least because it would show that Graeme Hick scored more runs than anybody else in the history of the game.
An excellent hundred of course, but most ODI runs aren't such a test as in a Test. We should discount any scores against the likes of Kenya, Holland, Bangladesh and, um, England.
The numbers game will not give you the answers you want; never leave you with the memories, the warmth, the romance even, in watching a less feted player and average by averages batsman like Carl Hooper score 37 or 73. That's all your left with you see;tiny flashes of the spectacle not hard stats for discussion or comparison. Did the batsman make you feel? Feel something? Feel other? Don't know many- feel pissed mob aside, a begrudging respect really- that get that way about Ponting. Some do about Sachin but with him you get the impression it's a love of technique. Forget the stats but ask did they make you feel?
Tom Redfern, is that how we classify batsmen? Purely on grounds of romance? Respect is as good a mark as any, surely?
I still remember Punter's ton in the third test 2005 Ashes, one of his regular attempts to carry the team on his back.
And the WC final 2003, breathtaking doesn't begin to describe that one.
And as an Oz fan, probably only AB has made me happier that he is there.
And most Aussie fans seem to love Tendulkar, really love him.
Winsome.
Ponting does make you feel something then. You've seen a lot more of Ponting than I have but to be honest my feelings are clouded by prejudice. Twenty years of Aussie domination have left absolutely no love for Australians. Yeah you were the best but did you really have to be so superior about it. I felt the same way when the Windies ruled the world.
The only aussie in the last 20 years I'd gave paid to watch bat:Mark Waugh. Still I admire tough gritty batsmen who do their thing. Like watching them? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder isn't it. There's someone out there who'd rather watch Alan Border than Aravinda da Silva. Yes, beauty is in the eye of beholder.
Anyway it's not a pageant is it?
As for Sachin, Azzarhudin bat anyday.
Between them, Ponting and Tendulkar have played 763 ODIs - almost two solid years' worth
May I please be the first pedant to point out that's actually more than two solid years' worth...
As you were.
Leg Break - Presumably OB had factored in the odd day off...
OK, yeah, I er, you know, can't really add up... but I spose you could say they're not actually on the field all day.
As to Tom's point about emotion, my view is, I guess, that it should stand separately from the stats, as the stats are universal and the emotion is unquantifiable, but nonetheless makes the game what it is.
My argument about equivalency for ODI runs was that they're the equal of first class runs in lots of circumstances, and, going back to emotion, it seems a shame that the landmark of 100 hundreds should fade away purely because the game has evolved away from the four and five-day formats.
How many non England qualified cricketers have made 100 centuries? I had always assumed 'overseas' cricketers played less first class cricket and so had less of a chance. Nowadays they are simply prevented by the cricket board from playing.
Dull as ditchwater and twice as inevitable, Gooch scored 67,00 to Hick's 63,000 and Hobbs' 61,000. Gooch's longevity and appetite probably outlived both the others, though I would back Sir Jack in WWI trenches...
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