Here is a very good article I found on cricketnext.com
Which shows 2 different points of view on Lara and Sachin.
I think it has already been decided who is the better batsman, many say its Tendulkar.
This time, the question is not who is better but who is a better match winner.
First article below supports Sachin’s cause as a better match winner.
2nd Article supports the idea of Lara as a better matchwinners.
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Tendulkar a little ahead of Lara
By R. Dharmarajan
Singapore, July 19, 2003
Recently there was a discussion in CricketNext.com as to who is the greater match-winner between Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. There were comments from readers all over the world. Let’s look at these players’ statistics.
Tendulkar against Australia in Australia has scored 646 runs in eight Test matches at an average of 46.14 with three hundreds and two fifties. Lara in Australia has played 15 Tests, scoring 1083 runs at an average of 40.11. He has hit three hundreds, including a brilliant 277 at Sydney and four fifties. Tendulkar’s highest in Australia is 148, a mind-boggling knock at Perth in 1992.
Overall against Australia, Lara averages 51.45 in 27 Tests, with eight hundreds and 11 fifties. Tendulkar’s overall average against Australia is a little better than Lara’s. He averages 54.07 in 15 Tests. He has scored 1406 runs against them compared to Lara’s 2407 and has scored six hundreds and five fifties.
Now, let’s look at their performances against South Africa. Lara against South Africa in South Africa had a miserable time. In five Tests there, he could score just 310 runs with 79 as his highest. He is averaging just 31 and has no hundreds to his name there.
Tendulkar on the other hand is averaging 42.04 in nine Tests that he has played in South Africa. He has scored three hundreds in South Africa including a majestic 169 and in nine Tests, he has got 636 runs with three hundreds.
Overall against South Africa, Lara has not fared too well. In 11 matches, Lara has scored 791 runs against them at an average of 35.95 with 91 as his highest. Tendulkar has got 948 runs against South Africa in 14 Tests overall but the average has come down to 37.42.
It can be clearly seen from the above that Tendulkar has got an average of 52.46 playing away from India as against Lara’s 51.55 and more importantly Tendulkar has the better averages playing in Australia and South Africa.
The overall batting average also clearly reflects that Tendulkar’s 57.58 in Tests is much higher than Lara’s 51.55. Then there is the talk of the match winning innings played by Lara under difficult situations.
Lara had this 147 against New Zealand in the Wellington Test that his team won. However there was 151 scored by Jimmy Adams and another century by Junior Murray in the West Indies total of 660 for five declared and NZ was demolished by Courtney Walsh.
Of course his 213 against Australia at Kingston is a remarkable innings and it still remains as one of the best Test innings ever played. Tendulkar too scored two match-winning centuries against Australia and both came at Chennai. The debate is not about who is the best as both are class players and have earned the respect of bowlers all over the world and more importantly respect each other.
For statistics’ sake, Tendulkar has figured in 30 Tests that India has actually won as against Lara’s 29 for the Windies, though India has not won much away from home. Let us not forget Lara had the support of the likes of Walsh and Curtly Ambrose. This is not to undermine Lara’s effort. Rather it is highlighted just to show there is not much to choose between the two and if statistics and facts are the only criteria then it has to be Tendulkar at the top.
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Why Lara will always be more valuable than Tendulkar
By Tapan Joshi
Mumbai, July 19, 2003
My friend and cricket aficionado from Singapore, Mr. R. Dharmarajan, has come out strongly in support of Sachin Tendulkar with the tried and tested method of resorting to statistics. Agreed, statistics don’t lie. But do they provide the complete picture? I have my doubts.
If statistics are the only yardstick to measure the best in the game, then indeed, by the time Tendulkar retires from first-class cricket, he will be second only to the late Sir Donald Bradman. He is great, agreed. He is a batting master, no-one doubts that. But we all know he cannot even touch the likes of Sir Garfield Sobers or for that matter that great destroyer of fast bowling, Sir Vivian Richards.
Tendulkar cannot be technically perfect like Sunil Gavaskar, he cannot match Gundappa Viswanath in artistry, or Mohammed Azharuddin in elegance. By the time Tendulkar retires, he would have outscored them all, but does that make him better than these players?
Brian Lara, to me, is a bigger match-winner than Tendulkar. In fact, is Tendulkar a match-winner at all? Tendulkar is a great accumulator of records, he has a huge appetite for batting, but in 15 years of international cricket, have we seen Tendulkar compiling an unbeaten 153 in the company of tailenders to pull off a majestic one-wicket win? Have we seen Tendulkar get 281 after India was made to follow on and win the match for his country?
I again say Tendulkar may be a better batsman than Lara as the statistics suggest. But the debate here is who is more valuable. Who will you back to get a brilliant 150 when your team is chasing a target of 400 to win a Test?
Lara is mercurial, and that’s why he loses out to Tendulkar in popularity. Lara is a flawed genius, and that’s why he will be quite far behind the Indian master when the record books will be written for the final time for them. But then, that’s Lara’s beauty as well.
Centuries and double centuries are scored by many, but when they come from Lara’s blade, it is something else. It doesn’t remain just batting. It becomes an opera, it becomes Lara’s theme. Both are geniuses, and Tendulkar may be a better batsman, but then, when both are in full flow, the Trinidadian goes one level further.
Mr. R. Dharmarajan of 
