Off topic - did see Kapil Dev play. When I was in Madras (current Chennai) a couple of my friends and I rode a bicycle to Chepauk stadium (currently known as Chidambaram stadium) to see the Indian team (nets) ~ 1977 or 78. There was this young strapping kid, who bowled faster than any Indian I had seen. He happened to be Kapid Dev. I do not believe he made the squad that year (India was playing Windies at home I think). But the guy made an impression all right!
Off topic - did see Kapil Dev play. When I was in Madras (current Chennai) a couple of my friends and I rode a bicycle to Chepauk stadium (currently known as Chidambaram stadium) to see the Indian team (nets) ~ 1977 or 78. There was this young strapping kid, who bowled faster than any Indian I had seen. He happened to be Kapid Dev. I do not believe he made the squad that year (India was playing Windies at home I think). But the guy made an impression all right!
Yeah he was the fastest bowler indian has ever produced
That being said the game has changed a lot over the past two decades. Conditions/things are far more in favour of batsmen these days
Introduction of neutral umpires in tests in the 90s, hence less biased or bad decisions
greater use of technology
restriction of one bouncer per batsman per over. There was no such restriction in the 70s and 80s
batting-friendly pitches
quality of fast bowling
So if someone’s averaging 54-57 now and if someone was averaging 50-52 in the 80s, I consider them to be about the same in greatness
It is unfair to compare players across generations and I consider batsmen of the 80s incl. Viv, Gavaskar, Miandad, Border and Greg Chappell to be as great as modern day batters incl. Sachin, Kallis, Lara and Ponting
Besides Viv (although he never had to face his own fearsome quartet), Miandad, Gavaskar and Border scored their runs against better bowlers (just my personal opinion)
It took a really really good ball to dislodge Gavaskar for instance. He was that compact and solid in defence. Same can’t be said about Lara, Ponting, Sachin or even Dravid
Among Batsman who have Played 150 + tests Tendulkar has best Avg. However thats not the point.
Avg’s wont necessarily tell more about batsman. A Batsman batting at no.7 and no.8 will have lower avg, coz mostly they have to fire at the end of innings, So comparing them to other who have better avg than them isnt fair.
Here is the list of best Avg’s. I understand if u dont wana include guys with 20 odd test matches but you cant ignore batsman with 50 test matches, Its not necessarily there fault if teams didnt play as much cricket as they do now. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/282910.html.
Here is the list of best Avgs in ODI’s. Again I understand if u dont consider Zaheer Abbas coz he played 62 ODI’s but ignoring someone who have played over 100 ODI’s wont be fair. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/282911.html
I am not trying to undermine Tendulkar, I am rather making a point that Even though there r batsman who have better avg’s then tendulkar but they r not necessarily better than Sachin. Example is Dhoni.
^ What you are saying applies to ODIs but not test matches. Great test batsmen usu. either open (e.g. Gavaskar, Greenidge etc.) or bat at no. 1 to 3 down positions
Re: GA's comment re: Gavaskar - I totally concur. It took a special delivery to dislodge him. Have seen no one like him when it comes to rock solid defende. (Sorry off topic again)