Sachin Tendulkar best ever batsman ahead of Don Bradman in online polls

Sachin Tendulkar was voted as the greatest batsman of all time, ahead of Don Bradman and Brian Lara, in an online poll conducted by an English newspaper after the news of the Indian batting icon's retirement from Test cricket broke out on Thursday.

'The Telegraph' asked its readers to choose the best ever from among 10 batsmen -- Tendulkar, Bradman, Lara, Vivian Richards, Ricky Ponting, Gary Sobers, Jacques Kallis, Len Hutton, Rahul Dravid and Allan Border.

2108 voted till 8:30pm IST and Tendulkar received 1,146 votes (54.36%), far ahead of Bradman -- who polled 558 (26.47%). Lara and Richards were distant third and fourth, garnering 132 (6.26%) and 118 (5.6%) respectively.

The newspaper though said that Tendulkar might have gathered more runs and centuries in Test cricket than any other player, but he could not make it to the top 10 of ICC's career-best ranking system, whose complex algorithm ranks players by their achievements at the height of their form.

© PTI