Cricket Fans

[CigKopf]

I have a question, or a couple of questions, for all the international folks on this forum that like cricket. I live in the U.S., so I have never seen a single second of a cricket match, and I know absolutely nothing about the sport. I also know absolutely nothing about the players of the sport.

With all of that being said, I was listening to NPR today and I heard that a HUGE cricket star named Sachin Tendulkar is retiring. The guy on the radio interviewed a man from India who was saying that Sachin was the greatest batsman ever. He kept raving about how great of a cricket player this guy is/was. He was also saying that in India, Sachin is a larger icon than Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, and all other American sports heroes, put together. For an American who is completely ignorant about cricket, is any of this true? Was he really the greatest batsman ever? Is his retirement a huge deal for the sport of cricket, or was this guy from India a bit of a nut job? Also, is Sachin really a larger sports icon to Indians than any American athlete is to us Americans? I know there are people from all over the world that are members of this forum (one of the many great things about cigars really), and I was just wanting your guys take on this.

[dicko]

Sachin is massive in the world of cricket and in India he is a god. I've been lucky to travel there and have close Indian friends and they consider him a national leader of sorts.

His sporting prowess is well regarded by all across the world as well. He started playing internationally when he was 16 or so and has been around for decades performing at a consistently high level (except maybe one or two years out of 20+) so no matter what sport you play that's a good achievement.

He's not the best ever though that's Don Bradman of Australia. Statistically he is just about the best sportsman ever in any sport, objectively.

[Ken Gargett]

agree with dicko.

huge huge star.

but a long second to don bradman but then everyone is. and yes, statistically, well ahead off anyone. there are people with higher averages than tendulkar but he has been a superstar of the game. i think he played his first test at 16. almost unheard of. you may see an occasional player at 19 or 20 but most are early 20s. and he is pushing 40 i think. so has played for a quarter of a century. wonderful player. but part of this comes back to india. as someone was saying on tv the other day, not re this, that cricket is india's leading religion, and second religion. and third religion. ditto pakistan and sri lanka. they are beyond fanatical. and tendulkar is a god to many millions.

i remember about 20 plus years ago, crossing the border from iran to pakistan at quetta and kids just desperate to talk cricket. one wanted to check something about third grade averages in the sydney competition. he knew the names of all the players and scores. down to third grade. that is rainman stuff.

[Guest rob]

Sachan is to Indians what Pi is to mathematics.

[LordAnubis]

Yes yes and yes. Indias religion is cricket, and as dicko said, Sachin is their god. Cricket is to indians, as what Soccer is to the brits, and ice hockey is to candians and guns are to americans and beer is to australians.

Tendulkar is currently the higest run scorer in test cricket history (he has 15800 runs, the next highest after him 13300), has the most centuries (scoring more than 100 runs in an innings) and he has played the most test matches (he will retire after playing 200, the next best is RIcky Ponting with 160 something).

And yes Don bradman is regarded as the best ever batsmen, as he has an average of 99.94 runs per innings. The next best after him is Graham Pollock with 60.97 (there is some other guy in the middle i think, but hes a young cricketer and so far only played 8 or 9 matches.. so he doesn't count). Statistics wise Bradman has the highest z-score comparing to others like Jordan, Gretzky, Nicklaus etc. I have a journal article on this if someone would like to read it, let me know. I wont post it up here for everyone because i stole it from a journal using my uni login instead of paying for the thign

[Ken Gargett]

Yes yes and yes. Indias religion is cricket, and as dicko said, Sachin is their god. Cricket is to indians, as what Soccer is to the brits, and ice hockey is to candians and guns are to americans and beer is to australians.

Tendulkar is currently the higest run scorer in test cricket history (he has 15800 runs, the next highest after him 13300), has the most centuries (scoring more than 100 runs in an innings) and he has played the most test matches (he will retire after playing 200, the next best is RIcky Ponting with 160 something).

And yes Don bradman is regarded as the best ever batsmen, as he has an average of 99.94 runs per innings. The next best after him is Graham Pollock with 60.97 (there is some other guy in the middle i think, but hes a young cricketer and so far only played 8 or 9 matches.. so he doesn't count). Statistics wise Bradman has the highest z-score comparing to others like Jordan, Gretzky, Nicklaus etc. I have a journal article on this if someone would like to read it, let me know. I wont post it up here for everyone because i stole it from a journal using my uni login instead of paying for the thign

i would not want to get you in any strife but definitely interested.

[email protected]

[Webbo]

Just back from a business trip to India and it's hard to appreciate just how important cricket is to them. A population of approx 1.2 billion people and realistically only one major sport (the others barely get a mention). Newspaper sport sections are 95% cricket, TV is always showing at least 4 or 5 games at anyone time, night or day. Almost all sponsership is cricket related with players (even minor ones) seen on every billboard in the land. All the players themselves become enormously rich ( yes by any western standards) by representing their country , but top of the tree by some distance is Tendulkar who has surpassed all before him and indeed is almost literally worshipped, not one dissenting voice will be heard against him from the whole country, imagine that for any player in any other sport in the country where you live.

On this trip I mentioned to an Indian colleague that I new quite well one of the current England team and had played ( at a very minor level) in the same team when he was a youngster. The look on my colleagues face was one of shock, amazement and awe. As we talked ( and drank my Zacapa) it soon became clear to me that this was in no way related to my prowess in the game but the fact that effectively my colleague felt himself now only 2 degrees of separation away from someone who had played against Tendulkar in the last test series in India. He is this important to them and more,

[Philski]

Don't meant to to derail the thread, but this reminded me of Bill Bryson's outsider's view of cricket: http://www.wandererscricket.com/Yank_view.html

[LordAnubis]

Ahahahha that is an awesome article !!!

" It is not true that the English invented cricket as a way of making all other human endeavours look interesting and lively"

[Guest rob]

That was hilarious! And I love cricket!!

[Ken Gargett]

just a little more on this. heard mike coward, an english cricket writer who is extremely highly regarded, was talking. he said no question at all that the best batsman is bradman, second is sobers. hard to argue (unless you ever want an indian visa again). and sobers the best "cricketer" which i think is unquestioned, when you add his bowling and fielding.

also, if you remove the games tendulkar player against zimbabwe and bangladesh (and he played against those two very poor cricketing nations more than anyone else), his average drops to 51. that is still very good but puts him in the middle of many others. bradman never played either of those countries.

also, bradman scored 26% of his team's runs. no one else is near. he finished in 1948 yet still holds many records.

a little while ago, 100 cricket commentators, writers, judges etc etc were asked to vote on the best ever. bradman won the vote. no one came second. he got all 100 votes.

[Ken Gargett]

just on that last point, anyone think of any other sport where 100 experts would agree on the best? i'm talking widely played/followed sports (for our american friends, cricket is extremely widely played/followed).