OMGSACHIN: Sachin Tendulkar second to Don Bradman

Sachin Tendulkar's batting average will never catch Bradman's but, as Ron Reed writes, the Little Master is moving further into his own realm of greatness.

SACHIN Tendulkar has long presented a compelling case for the right to be regarded as the second-best cricketer of all time - but it's never been quite cut and dried.

It may be now.

"It would be very difficult to argue against him," Greg Chappell said yesterday.

Is Tendulkar the second best of all time? Have your say below.

Indeed, Tendulkar's most ardent fans - and no sportsman in the world is worshipped by more people - are now starting to give voice to the ultimate sacrilege by suggesting Sir Donald Bradman is not necessarily out on his own any more.

That debate has been under way on the popular cricinfo.com website this week as Tendulkar has put Australia to the sword, yet again, relentlessly moving further and further past all of the The Don's numbers except the one that stands as the noble old game's greatest icon - his batting average, 99.94.

Tendulkar's is now 56.96, so Bradman is just as uncatchable as always, and as always will be.

But by just about every other statistical measurement - and by less tangible methods of recognising genius, such as aura, style and dominance - the pride of India is leaving all other challengers behind.

That's not to lightly dismiss the claims of many great champions dating all the way back to Dr W. G. Grace and including, among others, Jack Hobbs (whose average was an eerily similar 56.94), Sunil Gavaskar, Allan Border, Len Hutton, Garry Sobers, Viv Richards and Javed Miandad - and the contemporary era's Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and, perhaps, Rahul Dravid.

And, of course, if we're talking cricketers, rather than batsmen, then Shane Warne and maybe - outrage-from-purists alert - Muttiah Muralidaran, are well and truly in contention.

But the ones still playing, Ponting, Kallis and Dravid, are never going to catch Tendulkar - in fact, though he is 37 and 173 days older than the first two and marginally younger than his teammate, Tendulkar is widening the gap.

Certainly, his standing in the game just grows ever greater.

Only a fortnight ago he was voted cricketer of the year in the ICC's annual awards, as well as winning the people's choice popularity contest.

So officially he is still the best - and best-loved - in the game. But there aren't too many from any other games who would outrank him.

Sprinter Usain Bolt is generally regarded as the planet's No.1 sportsman, and tennis player Rafael Nadal is probably next.

Tendulkar would be in my trifecta, and dissenters may feel free to form a queue to argue their case.

Tendulkar accepted the ICC accolades and then comprehensively justified them by making 38, 98, 214 and 53 not out against Australia, winning man of the series and proving the difference between the teams - as well as going past 14,000 runs and taking his centuries to 49.

Nobody else gets close to these figures, and given that his 17,598 one-day runs include 46 hundreds, a century of international centuries now beckons - a mind-boggling feat.

After 21 years at the coalface, what keeps him going? And how long can he keep it up?

Chappell, who coached India for three years, says that as long as Tendulkar's body holds up and he keeps believing in himself, he has a few more years - at least.

In other words, he should be able to play on beyond 40, which proved to be Bradman's limit - and the original legend played only 52 Tests and had a five-year break for the war.

Tendulkar has played 171 and counting, as well as 442 one-dayers, which Bradman didn't have to contend with.

Chappell says one of Tendulkar's secrets is that he still thinks like a younger man.

"We had a number of chats about batting early on and, like anyone, he had his doubts and uncertainties," he said.

"He was in his 30s then, and batting doesn't become easier as you get older and more aware of how difficult it is.

"You need the mental energy, as well as the physical energy. The danger as you get older is that you think like an older player, become more conservative, more aware of things that can go wrong such as wickets playing tricks.

"The only way to survive is to think like a younger player, and that's been helpful to him.

"It's easy to devote 100 per cent of yourself when you're young, but then you get married, have a family, develop other interests.

"The trick is to train yourself to go into a cocoon, and he has been able to do that, to detach himself from the rest of his existence and focus on what he is doing at the moment.

"It was amazing to watch him up close, the love and joy that was engendered wherever he went and how he dealt with it. It's incredible what he has to endure, but on the other hand it helps him because batting is his only release and that's part of his amazing longevity."

Chappell also found him to be a much more complex thinker than most good cricketers.

"Nobody thinks like he does," he says.

"Most good cricketers in my experience simplify batting, but he thinks about a lot more things. He'll change his stance or his gloves depending on how he feels, and will concern himself with things like the sightscreen or the background behind it.

"I was surprised by the sort of things he worries about."

On the question of Tendulkar's status as the second-best ever, Chappell said: "He's had his lulls, and there have been others who could lay claim to that mantle.

"Lara and Ponting have out-performed him at times.

"As a teenager I played with and against Sobers, who was probably the most dominant over a long period and was also an allrounder and a captain.

"But yes, it's hard to argue against Tendulkar."

Bradman famously said Tendulkar reminded him of himself, and on cricinfo.com it was being suggested there was now nothing between them.

That, say the besotted ones, is because their hero has played in many more countries and against bowling methods - reverse swing, doosras and so on - that the great man never encountered, not to mention vastly superior fielding.

It also has been suggested - not necessarily logically - that if Bradman played three times as many Tests as he did, his average would inevitably have diminished.

But one blogger wrote: "I am a fan of Sachin, too. Please stop embarrassing Sachin by starting an argument that anybody can be better than Bradman.

"If you go tell Sachin that he is a better batsman than Bradman, he will smack you then tell you to stop embarrassing him and yourself."

Quite so - but the Little Master has moved to a pedestal of his own, and is unlikely to be knocked off it.

SACHIN TENDULKAR

Born: April 24, 1973

Right-hand bat, right-arm off/legbreak

Test debut: v Pakistan, November 1989

ODI debut: v Pakistan, December 1989

T20I debut: v Sth Africa, December 2006

DON BRADMAN

Born: August 27, 1908 Died: February 25, 2001

Right-hand bat, right-arm legbreak