Sachin Tendulkar

This is, obviously, a question of opinion as opposed to those of fact.

Following are a few opinions:

Without a doubt, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. He has played against every type of bowling attack on every possible wicket - fast or slow, seaming or spinning , bouncy or turning track, scored greatly against every opposition - faced pace or reverse swing, spin or flight with utmost ease - plays every shot in the book and invented and mastered some of his own, esp. the backfoot punch.

If one wants to compare Bradman, consider this: Bradman had just 1 world class statistic to boast of - his batting average, look at Sachin who has many world class records, each unique in it self etched on to his name; and Sachin has played ODI & t20 cricket which are high pressure games. To score runs in these situations quickly under crunch pressure is phenomenal. If Sachin played in Bradman's era, which was lot easier mentally & physically on players (cricket was gentleman's game back then) he would have got a 3 figure avg. probably around 140-150.

I don't think Sachin Tendulkar is the best player of all time.

Vivian Richards is the best batsmen ever. He played with the world's heaviest bats and had so many boundaries with it and even in 50 50 and Test Match, he hit boundary on every ball, he rarely stopped a ball. ( He was a West Indian champion of 60's, 70's and 80's)

Personally, I would hold to the traditions of Donald Bradman [Australia] as, clearly, the greatest batsman of all.

With a Test match batting average of nearly 100, even the best of those below him cleared little more than half of that in first class career Test batting averages. He did not live during a time when any limited over competitions were taken very seriously, but he was such a master that changing scoring pace was also certainly amongst his batting equipment. Test cricket, despite the comment [above], is the toughest cricket of all. One has to perform, consistently, for 2 full innings plus fielding/bowling over 5 full days of (often) hot cricket. Bradman invented many of the shots that are now considered "in the book", and had to face the severest tests of all - the "Bodyline Series".

As for who might run as second-best: to me it could be a toss between Vivian Richards [West Indies], Barry Richards [South Africa - whom Bradman placed as his opening batsman when choosing his Team of All-time Greats], Sachin Tendulkar [India]and Greg Chappell [Australia]. Gary Sobers [West Indies] might also worthily rate a mention, though he is probably the Greatest all-rounder we have seen.

The answer to this question is rather surprising; Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka has been sent packing to the pavilion a record 34 times in ODI's without a run to his name, which is ironic considering he is one of the best limited overs batsmen of his geneation. He is followed by Wasim Akram on 28, who leads a group of four on 25 ODI ducks (Muttiah Muralitheran, Shahid Afridi, Mahela Jayawardene and Chaminda Vaas).

Below is the list in order of countries who have scored the highest amount of ducks with one player (number of ducks in brackets, country in bold, player in italics):

Sri Lanka - Sanath Jayasuriya (34)

Pakistan - Wasim Akram (28)

South Africa - Herschelle Gibbs (22)

New Zealand - Daniel Vettori (22)

West Indies - Chris Gayle (21)

India - Sachin Tendulkar (20)

Australia - Ricky Ponting / Adam Gilchrist (19 each)

Zimbabwe - Grant Flower (18)

Bangladesh - Habibul Bashar (18)

England - Alec Stuart / Marcus Trescothick (13 each)

Kenya - Stepen Tikolo (13)

Canada - Henry Osinde (7)

Scotland - Navdeep Poonia (7)

Netherlands - Bastiaan Zuiderant (7)