ICC ALL TIME RANKINGS TEST
ODI
BELIEVE IT OR NOT...You might think Sachin can, safely be considered as the No. 2 slot in a list of all-time greats. But you would be wrong, or so says the ICC. SACHIN ISN'T EVEN IN THE TOP 20 TEST BATSMEN, ACCORDING TO NEW ICC 'BEST EVER' RATINGS.
The list, that is topped by the great late Sir Donald Bradman- the unquestioned supreme deity of batting - who had once said "Sachin Tendulkar reminded him of himself more than anybody before or since", has the likes of Len Hutton and Jack Hobbs and West Indian legends Clive Walcott, Viv Richards and Garry Sobers and also includes Tendulkar's contemporaries like Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara, Matthew Hayden, Jacques Kallis, Mohammad Yousuf and Michael Hussey.
The only Indian in the top 20 is Sunil Gavaskar, who only just gets in ahead of West Indian George Headley. How about The Wall? Rahul Dravid stands not so tall at No. 30.
"Players make the all-time list by sustaining excellent form over a prolonged period," the ICC website explains, which makes it slightly difficult to understand why none of the top four run-getters in Tests - Sachin, Brian Lara, Alan Border and Steve Waugh - figures among the ICC’s top 20 Test batsmen. In Sachin’s case, we can only conclude that the ICC believes 12,429 runs and 41 tons are not excellent enough. Or perhaps 19 years is not a prolonged enough period...morons
The 'best-ever' ratings for batsmen by the ICC is nothing short of baffling.While the Test ratings defy logic, the list of the "best ever" ODI batsmen strains your credulity no less. Mercifully, Sachin does figure in the top 20 here, though only at No.12, but those who follow him in the list of top run getters in ODIs - Sanath Jayasuriya, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting - are among the also-rans.
Inzy is ranked as low as No.43, while compatriot Zaheer Abbas is at No.2, a fact that surely will embarrass Zaheer no end.Matthew Hayden, ranked No.18 might be wondering why he always thought his fellow opener Adam Gilchrist was the superior ODI player, considering the stumper ranks only No.30.
