Whenever you think about Brian Lara, and particularly if you are an indian, the comparison with Sachin Tendulkar is inevitable. Surely these two players are the leading lights of the art of batting, one the greatest living talent of game (may I add ’perhaps’), the other talent applied in the most methodical and disciplined way. Its so often that in life the successful people are not the most capable ones but the ones who tried persistantly and managed their faculties well.
Lara’s story though is full of twists and turns and squandering of talent with intermittemt streaks of shear genius. Tendulkar’s is gradual refinement and steady progress to perfection.
We will look at the story from where it begins. Sachin and Lara, both started playing serious cricket around the begining of the decade of 90. ( sachin started in 89). In his earliar days (despite a thunderous start) sachin was rather awkward starter, batted at 5-6, and appeared vulnerable. He was more of classy mumbai mould, signified by wristyness and minimal movements of the willow.
Lara made a more robust start, a west indian in every aspect, he had(still has) a terribly high back lift and played flashy shots, relying on eye sight and bat speed.he clearly took the lead, and became ’the next big thing ’ of the game. He smashed the aussies in their own backyard like no body ever did, scoring 277 in sidney, which to my best knowledge is highest by any visitor in modern game. Its a pity his effort was not included in the wisden top hundred, as the waugh brothers managed to save that game. Sachin too had his’ baptism’ in melbourne, an inning I believe is still his best ever.
But lara’s big moment came in 94, when he smashed two world records in a span of a month and he sealed the best batsman debate for around two years.
Sachin at that time was making good progress, but clearly he was chasing from behind. He still hadn’t scored a one day humdred despite playing 70 odd games. On the other hand lara, in a triangular against pakistan and south africa, scored 4 of them!it was perhaps the best display of playing fast bowling in last 15 years, cracking wasim, wakar and donald, all at there fiery best. In fact in the final of that game pakistan got bowled out under 50 as much as I remember, and I doubt whether anyone other than Lara got a century in that series.
Perhaps upto 96 there were no doubts who was leading ( doubts which existed were in india only). But then thinks took a turn. Captainship struggle and injuries started plaguing lara’s career. West Indian cricket accelerated towards abyss(with successive whitewashes in south africa and australia)and his game suffered. He though avenged himself against the proteas by scripting their ouster from two world cups with brilliant centuries. Tendulkar on the other hand florished with a good world cup and sharjaah showings.
During 97-2001 thanks to score-till-you-break-your-back pajama cricket, the sub-continent players(all of anwar, ganguly, jayasurya and elks) saw their ODI stats swell. Lara on the other hand, saw his graph dip. His ODI average dropped from almost 50 to 42, and test average from around 60 to 49!! though he has improved upon the two since then.but sachin with his consistency kept increasing his lead.
Now the famous lara vs macgrath dual. indeed glen had the maestro in trouble, real good trouble. But lara smashed 8 centuries against aussies at the peak of their might! better than anybody in modern cricket. His game against spin has been equally good, his game caused shane warne to be ’dropped’ and those who remember his inning at antigua ( rated by wisden as 2nd gratest inning ever played), Ian Hilly’s career got a precipitous end because of dropping him. What to say about murali, who describes himself as the best he ever bowled to.
Speaking qualitatively, when wisden released the list of top hundred knocks, we had a furore in india, as there was no tendulKar knock in it! but one would cetainly agree that he struggles to play result oriented knocks and finishing games, I need not give examples on that.
Lara incidently had 3 ( this is before his 400), only bradman has more. Even as on today Lara has more test runs in lesser test innings than sachin!!! one of the reasons for this not reflecting in his average is that as a west indian player you hardly get chances to remain not out. He has 8 double tons(second only to bradman) and a much better first class record. He has scored faster test and one day centuries than tendulkar. As a trivia, Lara is the current world no 1 test batsman in PWC ratings !
The question of why his performance dipped is an open one. Perhaps his lifestype had a bearing on the game. May be the kind of money and popularity sachin was getting (as a tool to worlds fastest emerging market, the art of selling tendulkar needs a sepatate story) disturbed him or may be the mediocrity that surrounded him bogged him down.
Tendulkar might be decisivey ahead of him now. But he certainly remains one of the finest and most exciting player of our age. Somebody who never waited for the umpire’s deision, and always followed his instincts. He had the guts to break haydens record with six!incidently he is alltime third in terms of no. of sixes, behind viv and cairns. compare with what sachin does as he approaches a measly( well by his standards) century.
May be the comparison is like that between ayerton senna and shummi, one swashbuckling and flashy, the other consistent win machine(no points for guessing who’ s who). But one thing is certain, the debate that who was better will remain alive, even after our knowing who won.