| “Tendulkar is the greatest batsman in the world and daylight is second”. Shane Warne “Tendulkar is in a league of his own” Shoaib Akhtar
"The first time I saw him...I said he was something special. And as you see, he has gone on to prove it"
Curtly Ambrose
"He cannot last forever so I make every effort to see him bat whenever I can for he is a rare gem, the like of which does not come along very often." Greg Chappell
"He is someone sent from up there to play cricket and go back." The day he goes back, cricket will be poorer.”
Ravi Shastri
"Look, as far as I'm concerned Tendulkar is God, and if you want to become a better player you've got to compete with the best."
Brett Lee “His shot selection is superb, …[he] can make you look very silly. Everything is right in his technique and judgement. There isn't a fault there. Sachin is in a different class to Lara as a professional cricketer. He is a model cricketer, and despite the intolerable pressures he faces back home, he remains a really nice guy... Sachin is also the best batsman in the world, pulling away from Brian Lara every year...” Alan Donald Adam Gilchrist likened the pressure he felt when he walked out to bat in his farewell innings to that of Tendulkar. Gilchrist described the range of emotions he experienced as he walked to a standing ovation all the way to the crease. It was then, said Gilchrist, that he truly understood exactly what it must be like for Tendulkar every time he walks out to bat. That pressure; that burden of expectation, is what sets Tendulkar apart from every other batsman in the world. Adam Gilchrist 'I play cricket just because of Sachin Tendulkar." "He is my role model, I used to watch him on television and try to copy him. If he says that I am the closest [to his batting style], my life is complete. If I die tomorrow I'll be the happiest man in the world." Virender Sehwag [Asked to compare Tendulkar with Brian Lara, Sir Everton Weekes said: "Lara, of course, has carried his team through a few more times than the Indian, but then, "I feel it is the bowlers who take 20 wickets and decide the games." Sir Everton Weekes "I call Tendulkar the god of Indian cricket simply because he has made cricket popular among all ages and in a way has changed the face of cricket in the world. A cricketer of his caliber is born only once in a century and we are lucky and proud that he is an Indian". Kiran More
| | "Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal." Brian Lara "You take Don Bradman away and he's next up, I reckon”, Steve Waugh "that for sheer entertainment, Sachin will keep cricket alive" Barry Richards
"Tendulkar is the best since Bradman...I rate his hundred at Sydney in 1992 as the best hundred I've ever seen"
Richie Benaud
"Earlier, opposing teams used to feel that Sachin's dismissal meant they could win. Today, Indian players, too, feel this way”. Wasim Akram
"World XI missed Sachin very badly. His presence would have made the batting formidable" Aravinda de Silva
"Sachin was so focused. He never looked like getting out. He was batting with single-minded devotion. It was truly remarkable. It was a lesson."
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova joins the Sachin Tendulkar fan club after watching him bat at Sydney. "All his centuries have been special and this too. But I am still a big fan of his desert storm (innings)." MS Dhoni
"He's probably the greatest player to play the game in the modern era and compares with the Bradmans and all the legends of the past," Kumar Sangakkara
"who is the best - Brian Lara or Sachin Tendulkar? I have been privileged to see quite a lot of both fine players. But while Sachin has moved forward with dominating and majestic innings, Lara has gone backwards. Technically, you can’t fault Sachin. Seam or spin, fast or slow -nothing is a problem"
Geoffrey Boycott "The expectations of people from Sachin are 20 times more than what people have from me, but he does not keep this in mind when he goes in to bat."
Harbhajan Singh
"Tendulkar's is a mercurial attitude that allows him to sense the moment when to let loose his full array of shots and leave the bowlers clutching at straws" "To me the only disappointment is that 11 years after Sharjah, the Indian batting is still so heavily dependent on Tendulkar." Ian Chappell "To me Sachin Tendulkar is the superman of Indian cricket because I don’t think any sportsman in the world has lasted so successfully for so long (over two decades) and still has the hunger to succeed at the top level" Ajit Wadekar
"I don't remember even one shot that didn't come off the middle of the bat." "There were times as well that he played with half a blade and hit in areas that he precisely wanted to. I don't think I have seen too many better innings, in any form of the game". Brendon McCullum on Tendulkar's 41st ODI ton
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| | "Jessie! Jessie! Come here," Don Bradman once called to his wife while watching television. "Look there! The batsman on the television. Don't you think he reminds you of me?" Sir Richard Hadlee [2009] "Greatness should be reserved for masters. And Sachin is a master. Ricky Ponting is still a great player. He is getting into the master class. We have seen some wonderful innings from Ricky Ponting. Brian Lara, of course, was a wonderful player. So these guys are in a elite group and you have to respect that. If I have to pick one, I will go for Sachin". Dr. Sham Samaroo "Tendulkar always, I believe, has a plan when he walks to the crease. He never plays an innings without design. Much the same way that a painter regards his canvas, before he begins to paint. Each innings is a work of art, and he avails himself of resources which, it seems, he alone possesses. With his unlimited repertoire of strokes, Tendulkar paints a picture of complete domination from the very first delivery he faces" Hanif Mohammed "But Sachin Tendulkar is the best ever. No one can come near him. No one can touch him as a batsman. He is number one. Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul Haq are world class, but Tendulkar is unmatched. His technique, judgement, his confidence and range of strokes are simply amazing. "He had more strokes than Sunil Gavaskar and in that respect was better than him." Coach John Wright “…when India toured New Zealand in 1993-94. I was doing a bit of commentary and I took my young son to meet Sachin at Wellington. The nicest thing about him was his humility. He was just really kind and he signed a bat for Harry. You remember that as an ex-player. You think, ‘This guy is a really good person’.” “I never had any worries about coaching him. He's just so professional. He's never late, ever….He knows how to correct things or play around with certain things, even during an innings. Sachin has it up there [the head], that's what makes the difference. As a coach …sometimes you want to pull him back and say, “Just give me a calm 150”. You know, he said to me when we were playing Zimbabwe [Nagpur, 2000], “I'm not going to hit a ball in the air”. He didn't, and he got 201 not out. I've seen him bat in India with all the pressures that involves but I've never seen him flustered or impatient. He is rare because he is great as a sportsman and as a person – he's got an aura about him. How does he prepare? You'd have to ask him that. Players like that, you leave them alone. If they want some help, you help them but you don't get in the way. The worst thing you can do is put things in their heads" [When pointed out that Gavaskar got his runs against some of the fearsome fast bowlers including Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding and Dennis Lillee], Cairns said, "Gavaskar was very gutsy and technically correct but Tendulkar has all the strokes in the book. "Though I have not played against Sunny, I have seen him play against Hadlee and others while I have seen Tendulkar perform from close range and according to me he (Tendulkar) is the best batsman in the world" “I always enjoy bowling to Sachin. The guy's class, the best in the world. I don't think there's any bigger challenge for a fast bowler. He's an amazing player, one of the best ever, and you lift your game when you come up against him. If you can get him out or stop him scoring, it feels like you've done your job, it feels like you're not too bad a bowler" Glen McGrath "In the last session in Nagpur, when the Indian chase was still on, Tendulkar hit a reverse sweep, an orthodox sweep and a lofted cover drive…they were all exquisite cricket shots. To play those shots deliberately in such quick succession, off almost similar deliveries, was genius. That was a little jewel, just those 3-4 minutes." "It reminds you how very few people are special.” David Gower “As for Tendulkar, he has lifted modern-day mediocrity with his sublime genius. Men like him inspire a generation of youngsters to pick up the game and create a different level of creativity. Ask yourself how many times you have replayed those pick-up shots over the infield in your mind and swooned over it. We are suffused in his genius and watching a truly immortal in action. Enjoy it for such men grace the game in generations!” Arjuna Ranatunga
Arjuna Ranatunga on Tendulkar’s return from injury “Tendulkar's riposte to speculation on his future has been nothing less than stunning. He lashed out on the offside, executed those pick up strokes which had all but disappeared from his repertoire and made Muttiah Muralitharan, for once, appear mortal. His all-out aggression, the sprint between the wickets left even his younger colleagues breathless.”
"To me Sachin is the best and always will always be the best. In last one and a half decade I have been playing the game, he has been the best batsman. He is a great human being as well and sooner he comes back from injury lay-off the better it would be for the game". "To me he is one of the greatest player of all time and a very close friend of mine. It has been really exciting to watch him play and to play against him. I like to test myself against the best and I have found it a real challenge to bowl to him and he will be missed during the Johnnie Walker Super Series Test match between the Rest of the World and Australia" Shane Warne “A World XI without Sachin is not a World XI," Hussain said while speaking in Mumbai, "because he is one of the greats to have played the game and Australians hold him as the closest thing to Bradman, if not better. Doing well against Australia has been the benchmark for most cricketers over Sachin's career and if there is one player who all the great Australian cricketers, like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, will pick out as the toughest player they have played against, it will be Sachin." Nasser Hussain Allan Donald [2002] “The Best batsman I have bowled to... …I remember Craig McDermott telling us that he was going to be the best in the world. When someone like Tendulkar walks to the crease, you have to know what you are going to do. You can't just run up and bowl. You have to have planned your attack, your line, a week in advance. I have never seen a man with such immaculate balance – it is freakish. He is No. 1 in my book – the best player I have ever had the privilege of bowling to. There's Steve Waugh and there's Brian Lara, who was wonderful in 1995, but Tendulkar is a class above, consistently special. I don't think he really gets rattled by sledging. Glenn McGrath tried it during the World Cup and Tendulkar just kept running at him and hitting him back over his head for four. I think that, like Steve Waugh, sledging just makes him more focused: I don't think it is a good idea to have a word. Tendulkar is already a legend so I'm not sure how he'll be remembered – what comes after legend? He is still young and if he plays till he is 35 who knows what he'll achieve. He's the best in the world, one of the most magnificent players there's ever been. He's also a nice guy, a soft-hearted bloke who gives 110 per cent and just loves playing cricket" Sir Vivian Richards “I think he’s marvellous. I think he will fit in whatever category of cricket that’s been played or will be played, from the first ball that’s ever been bowled to the last ball that’s going to be. He can play in any era and at any level... What he looks to do first is to attack. If it’s not there in the groove he waits for the line and defends. Most of the time batsmen, just because it could be a fearsome fast bowler they are facing, tend to defend. But Sachin’s always ready. He’s always in a position to take advantage of loose balls...He has something special. He’s blessed...I would say he's 99.5 per cent perfect... Even if he retires tomorrow and doesn't achieve anything more he is right there... I have never seen Bradman but heard people talk about him. But I tell you what, if Bradman could bat like this man does then he was dynamite. Players like Sachin deserve to be preserved in cotton wool.” Shane Warne “Much has been made of my personal contest with Tendulkar. Some people have said that my duel with Tendulkar in India in 1997-98 was the most compelling Test cricket they have ever seen, but there is no doubt he enjoyed the better of the exchanges... He has played me better than anybody. Most Indian batsmen pick the length very quickly, even when it is flighted above the eyeline, but Tendulkar moved into position even earlier than the likes of Mohammad Azharuddin and Rahul Dravid... His footwork is immaculate. He would either go right forward or all the way back and he has the confidence to go for his strokes... Although my statistics in that series don't make happy reading, I am still prepared to say it was a pleasure to bowl to him... Obviously I never bowled to the Don, but if he was consistently superior to Tendulkar then I am glad he was an Australian.”
Aussie media equates Sachin with Bradman
29th Dec 1999
"It was clear now what Bradman had meant when he said Tendulkar was the batsman who reminded him most of himself, " 'The Age' columnist Greg Baum, wrote about Tendulkar's masterly knock of 116 in the second Test at the MCG on Tuesday.
"... that was his 22nd century, his fifth against Australia but really, it didn't matter, for in the face of such beauty, numbers hardly mattered. ...for a rare hour, Australia was the subservient team," Baum further wrote. Ajit Wadekar "Though I hate to compare two batsmen of different eras, I would like to point out here that both Sunny (Sunil) Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar were highly talented and dedicated with super human qualities. Gavaskar never flinched a bit while facing the most feared fast bowlers in the world that too without any protective gears while Sachin Tendulkar has played day in and day out for the past two decades in all three forms of cricket and is still a force to reckon with. In fact it is god’s gift that both of them have all the strokes in the book and are hungry for success. Probably the only difference according to me is Sachin is non-controversial and believes in his bat doing all the talking while Sunny was a bit temperamental and was more outspoken." Finally, let's hear from the master batsman On being acknowledged by the Don : “I remember it happened in 1995 when I was playing in Sharjah,” recalled Tendulkar. “I got this news and I was absolutely thrilled. I didn’t know how to react to that because that’s probably the greatest compliment. After that Sir Donald made a couple of statements which was absolutely fantastic, it’s the best compliment one can ever get.” Their mutual admiration was then consolidated when Tendulkar met ‘The Don’ on his 90th birthday. “I was one of those few people who could manage to meet him and I spent an hour with him, which was just fabulous.” On the journey:
"Success is a process and during that journey sometimes there are stones thrown at you and you convert them into milestones. It's a great feeling" On how long he thinks he can keep the record:
"I don't what is going to happen in future. I started as a 16-year-old, without any such targets. There might be another 16-year-old, who might not be having any targets and who knows where he is going to go" [Tendulkar on becoming the highest run scorer in tests] On playing for India: "Playing for India for the first time was the most important moment for me." "Playing for the country was my childhood dream and I have fulfilled my dream. I am fortunate to have played for my country for so many years"
| | "I would say he’s 99.5 per cent perfect." "...if Bradman could bat like this man does then he was dynamite. Players like Sachin deserve to be preserved in cotton wool.” Sir Vivian Richards “Among his contemporaries, Steve Waugh, Brian Lara and inzamam Ul Haq are often compared to the little maestro. Each has his trademark but Tendulkar combines all of their qualities to make him the best of the lot”. Glen McGrath "the closest thing to batting perfection the game has seen". Sunil Gavaskar "I would say Sachin and Lara are the two best batsmen I have faced, although you always think you have a more of a chance when you are bowling at Lara. Hence according to me the Indian star holds the edge over the West Indies genius". Freddie Flintoff "When you get 175 in a one-day game, it's not very often you don't win. He's played a lot of good innings against Australia over the years, but you don't see something like this every day. It was a terrific innings, especially when he lost a few wickets around him early. He hit almost every ball in the middle of the bat." Ponting "For him to have gone through a career like that, with the amount of pressure, the amount of expectations, and for him to have pulled it off the way he has, both on the field and off it, I feel it's a tribute to the man. It's been a pleasure to have played with him and he's truly been a champion." Rahul Dravid "As the undoubted number one batsman in the world. There was a period in 1994 when Brian Lara had that aura, but Tendulkar has dominated the world scene since. He is cool, has magnificient temperament, and is so mature you tend to forget his age. I can't think of any other example of a player who has so dominated the world before the age of 25. And all this has to be taken with the fact that for most of his playing days, he has had to bear the burden of India's batting -- much as Sunny Gavaskar had to, during his playing days" Tony Greig "When I saw Sachin play a flick wide of mid-on in the nets for the Probables team, I knew here was a special talent." Sunil Gavaskar [the very first day he saw tendulkar at tryouts] | | "I've always thought he's the best batsman I've seen or played against," Ricky Ponting “...there is a presence of mind about him, a greatness, like Muhammad Ali.” Coach John Wright “He is No. 1 in my book – the best player I have ever had the privilege of bowling to. There's Steve Waugh and there's Brian Lara, but Tendulkar is a class above, consistently special”, Alan Donald
"You just can't fox Sachin." "He reads the ball so early. The class in him comes out when he picks the ball as soon as it is delivered from the bowler's hand” Muralitharan " I'll be going to bed having nightmares of Sachin just running down the wicket and belting me back over the head for a six "
Shane Warne "If you ask me which India player I would love to have in my team. It has to be Sachin. In fact I would love to have 11 Sachin Tendulkars in my team, if I could" Brett Lee "To me he is a complete cricketer and a living legend. Cricketers like him are born once in a while and I feel all of us are fortunate to have seen him in action" Gundappa Vishwanath "It's very difficult for someone to take his eyes off Sachin Tendulkar," says Gautam Gambhir. "The way he makes you feel comfortable, makes you feel a part of the dressing room, the way he gives you the confidence that you belong to this place shows the amount of modesty he has." Gautam Ghambir "I think the way Tendulkar has handled his career and lasted for so long, keeping his passion for runs alive, is a lesson for budding young cricketers in Pakistan and India. Youngsters should adopt Tendulkar as their role model if they want to progress in the sport. He made his Test debut against us in 1989 and even today one can see the same hunger and spark to score runs. More importantly, he has been a great ambassador for the sport with the way he has conducted himself." Javed Miandad "It's really a remarkable achievement. He is one of the best cricketers of the world cricket. Sachin knows best how to accumulate runs.Once he gets going he becomes unstoppable." Sourav Ganguly |
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