Greatest of them all?

Bradman Vs Tendulkar—the debate rages on. It’s a highly emotive topic for us Indians that easily captures the public imagination (and countless eyeballs on TV I daresay, with every cricket pundit worth his salt giving his two cents) But to me it’s largely unnecessary and over-shadows the fact that India have been capitulating with unfailing consistency on the pace and bounce of the tracks in the southern hemisphere.

These two were batsman of a completely different era; one played on uncovered pitches in very few countries whereas the other has played on covered surfaces but in different conditions around the world. Bradman had a significantly higher average than Tendulkar but he did not have to carry the expectations of a billion people on his shoulders. Bradman played without a helmet and did not have to play one-day cricket; Tendulkar has to contend with different forms of the game and has been amazingly successful in all versions. I could go on and on but lest I fall into the ‘comparison trap’ again, let me just emphasize that the chasm between them is so wide, you could literally fill in two generations in between. Its simply not an Apples to apples comparison..

India went into the first Test at Centurion without a practice game and put into bat on a lively pitch were left floundering against arguably the best pace attack in the world today. They ruthlessly exposed the Indian batters ineptness against sustained pace; within a few hours of being put into bat India were left jumping and twitching like a fish out of water in alien conditions. The pitch eased out by the time the South Africans came to bat and they took full advantage and piled it on, amassing enough runs against an ineffectual bowling attack. A spirited response by Tendulkar and Dhoni in the second innings was not enough—the deluge of South African first innings runs was too much even for their collective powers to bail India out.

Predictably the headlines in India next day focused more on Tendulkar’s 50th century and tended to gloss over the fact that India lost by an innings. Doubtlessly as the tour progresses and the Indian batters become accustomed to South African conditions they will not fold as meekly as they at Centurion and even perhaps win a Test or two, but will they have left too little for too late? Alas, as we keep debating about the greatness of Tendulkar another ‘away’ series threatens to follow that predictable pattern of failure that Indian cricket lovers all dread.