The Indian batsman is placed 26th while West Indies’ Lara is 23rd in the baffling "ICC Best Ever Ratings" released by cricket’s governing body that rightly puts Australian great Sir Don Bradman on top followed by England´s Len Hutton.
Current Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting is tied for the third spot with former English opener Jack Hobbs while Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara surprisingly shares the sixth spot with Calypso greats of yesteryears like Viv Richards, Garry Sobers and Clive Walcott.
Recently retired Australian opener Matthew Hayden shares the 10th position with South African Jacques Kallis while even Australians Mike Hussey and Neil Harvey at joint 17th and England’s Kevin Pietersen at the 24th spot are rated above Tendulkar who reminded Bradman of himself more than anyone else.
The only Indian in the top 20 is Sunil Gavaskar who just edged West Indies´ George Headley to 21st.
It is very interesting to see the ICC believes record 12,429 Test runs, with record 41 centuries over a period of 19 years are not excellent enough. With the omission of former Australian captains Alan Border and Steve Waugh in addition to that of Tendulkar and Lara, none of the top four Test run-getters make the top twenty.
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