Best in the shorter form..

More than 17000 runs, 46 hundreds and 93 half centuries, five scores of over 150 and innumerable man of the match awards. Surely wouldn't it be considered sacrilegious to even wonder if there can be a better batsman than Sachin Tendulkar? But cliched as it may sound, that numbers tell only half the story, it is true. When seen in the right context, i.e. when compared to the achievements of the legendary Vivian Richards, probably the only cricketer who merits the comparison with Tendulkar in one day cricket, the numbers might just tend to read rather differently.

The comparisons are made in a simple manner for most aspects. For example, if player A averages 100 and player B averages 110, B scores 1.1 points to A's 1 point. For all factors, the ratio of the parameter is taken to calculate the points. The sum of points for each factor is used to determine who has been the better player. Of course, these need not be the sole parameters to determine the best player. I would definitely look forward to useful comments and suggestions.

Games against the minnows (many in Tendulkar's time) and Zimbabwe for Richards have been eliminated from the analysis despite it being more probable for lower ranked teams to compete far better in an abbreviated format.

** accuracy to third decimal

1. The best way to judge a top class player is to see how much ahead of his peers he is in terms of his average and strike rate in ODI's. Tendulkar, in his time has averaged 43.80 and scores at 85.66 per hundred balls. This record is stupendous considering his longevity, but in an era where the batting has become a lot easier with more relaxed rules, field restrictions and flatter tracks, Tendulkar's average is 1.501 times better than the overall average runs per wicket during his time in international cricket (29.18). His strike rate is 1.093 times the average for the period of his career (78.33). The sum of these two important parameter ratios comes to 2.594.

In the period Richards played, the conditions were far tougher to score in and the rules were not as skewed in favour of batsmen as they are in present day limited overs cricket. on the flip side, the fielding was not as athletic as present day cricketers. Richards averaged 47.21 in an era when the overall average per wicket was 28.29 and his strike rate was an exceptional 90.14 when the overall scoring rate was just 72.33. The corresponding ratios for Richards come up to be 1.668 and 1.246. Overall, the sum is 2.914.

Marginally, this factor points to Richards being the more dominant batsman. He averaged higher despite an ultra aggressive game in a phase when the general scoring rate was far lower.


2. Top ODI players stand out by virtue of the number of half centuries and centuries that they score. In 407 innings, Tendulkar has 41 centuries and 87 fifties which comes up to 128 scores in the category of over 50. The number of 50 plus scores per innings comes up to 0.314. Richards scored fewer centuries, 11 in total but 45 half centuries. The number of 50 plus scores per innings comes to 0.337. Tendulkar and Richards are almost level but for a very small difference on this front.


3. Comparing the performances of Tendulkar and Richards at home, away and neutral venues throws up some very interesting results. Tendulkar averages 46.25 at home, 37.90 away and 47.21 in neutral venues. In the matches involving Tendulkar, India have averaged 36.33 at home, 29.39 away and 29.88 at neutral venues. The dominance of the batsman is calculated by summing the ratios of his average to the team average. The figure for Tendulkar is 4.142.
He has by far been India's greatest in all three scenarios. For Richards, though the figures read very different. His home, away and neutral averages are 36.59, 56.80 and 38.80 while the team performances in the same period are 40.89, 31.26 and 33.50. He was the best in away games, but his record in the West indies was below par. In this aspect, it can be said that Tendulkar handled the home pressure much better. Tendulkar's away performance though falls well short of Richards' figures but the performance on neutral grounds favours Tendulkar. The corresponding parameter for Richards is 3.870. Overall, Tendulkar has proven to be the better player in all conditions when the performance relative to the team they played in is considered. This also points to the fact that India had a much weaker batting line up for years when compared to the mighty Caribbean team.

4. As a captain, both the players did struggle to match their performances during the games when they did not have the burden of captaincy. Tendulkar's average of 37.90 during captaincy is much lower than his mark of 45.03 when not a captain. Richards averaged 38.81 and 56.80 during the phases of captaincy and when not a captain. When the ratios are calculated, Richards scores 2.313 while Sachin scores 2.000 (base score).

5. The clear indicator of how big a match winner a batsman is can be made from the difference between his averages in wins and defeats. Richards averages 57.44 in wins and 29.43 in losses which is a difference of 28.01 while Tendulkar's corresponding figure is 22.30 (55.72 in wins and 33.42 in defeats). Viv Richards probably was the greatest match winner in ODI history and this is reflected here. The score here is 1 (base score) for Tendulkar and 1.248 for Richards.

6. Batting first or chasing, both these batsmen have been superb. Tendulkar averages 44.85 and 42.72 while batting first and chasing respectively while Richards averages 48.82 and 45.36. The ratio calculation comes to 2.150 for Richards and 2 for Tendulkar.

7. The greatest measure of batsman's domination in ODI's is his performance in the World Cup and the next biggest tournament for years was the triangular series in Australia. Richards of course played in far more games down under than Tendulkar while the little master has figured in more World Cup matches. Richards averages 66.46 in 21 WC games and 46.60 in 65 ODI games in Australia. Tendulkar on the other hand averages 45.11 in 28 WC games and 37.39 in 35 games down under. The ratio calculations gives Richards a score of 2.686.
Though Tendulkar has had a huge impact in big tournaments, Richards rules the roost when it comes to performance in major games.


8. Viv Richards was widely recognised as the finest player in big games. He revelled in finals of most tournaments and rarely failed when it mattered. His average of 55.73 with one ton and nine fifties in 18 finals is quite astounding. Tendulkar's performance is awesome too with an average of 52.51 in 38 games with 5 hundreds and 10 fifties. In this case, the difference between the two is negligible.


9. In their favourite positions i.e. Richards at 3&4 and Tendulkar at 2, they average 50.68 and 50.29 respectively. Again, almost nothing to choose from.


10. Longevity factor- Sachin Tendulkar has played 442 games in about 20.5 years which is approximately 21 games a year while Richards played 187 games in about 17 years which is 11 a year. Tendulkar has endured a far heavier international workload and his ability to stay consistently at the top of his game is commendable. His score in this regard is 1.909 to Richards' 1.


11. Ultimately the man of the match awards depict the true match winning ability of a player and with ODI's being more of a batsman's game they are far more indicative.
Tendulkar has a scarcely believable 61 awards in 442 games while Richards incredibly is third in the all time list with 31 awards from just 187 games. His awards per innings is slightly better than Tendulkar and he scores 0.044 in this case.

When all the points are added, the resulting final score is

Viv Richards: 16.562

Sachin Tendulkar: 15.959

An incredibly interesting and close comparison sees Viv Richards pip Tendulkar to be the finest ODI batsman ever. Both are very nearly balanced in every regard and just a glance at the entire process shows how difficult it has been to pick the best. In the end, it might just point to the fact that Richards nicks it because he performed more often when it mattered and was also a little more fortunate than Tendulkar to be part of a more consistent and better team for most of his career.