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Lara, Ambrose in top three
Tendulkar tops Warne's greatest cricketers list
Cricinfo staff
September 1, 2007
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Sachin Tendulkar topped Shane Warne's countdown of greatest cricketers edging out Brian Lara, who was placed second. Curtly Ambrose, Allan Border and Glenn McGrath rounded out the top five in Warne's Times column.
Warne rated Tendulkar ahead of Lara on account of his mental toughness and hailed him as a "great player and a great man". He wrote, "Outside grounds [in India], people wait until he [Tendulkar] goes in before paying to enter. They seem to want a wicket to fall even though it is their own side that will suffer ... He [Tendulkar] grew up under incredible weight of expectation and never buckled once - not under poor umpiring decisions or anything else."
Warne and Tendulkar clashed several times on the field, but their most most famous battles were on Australia's tour to India in 1997-98. Warne struck the first salvo, dismissing Tendulkar for 4 in the first Test, but was then taken apart in the second, going for 122 runs in 30 overs as Tendulkar smashed a matchwinning unbeaten 155. Tendulkar finished the series with an average of 111, while Warne's ten wickets cost him 54 apiece.
Five Australians were placed in the top ten, including three of Warne's captains - Border, Ricky Ponting and Mark Taylor. Ian Healy, tenth on the list, was described as the best wicketkeeper he'd ever seen.
Muttiah Muralitharan, who needs nine more wickets to go past Warne's record haul of Test victims, was the highest rated spinner - at seven. "He has helped to turn Sri Lanka into a formidable side at home," Warne wrote. "It is also worth remembering the work he did in the aftermath of the tsunami when he gave so much hope to people in despair."
Wasim Akram, who was sixth, was Pakistan's only representative in the top ten. Warne's complete list (of 53 cricketers) was dominated by Australia, with 20 players, though none were named among the top three.
Shane Warne's list of greatest cricketers
1 Sachin Tendulkar
2 Brian Lara
3 Curtly Ambrose
4 Allan Border
5 Glenn McGrath
6 Wasim Akram
7 Muttiah Muralitharan
8 Ricky Ponting
9 Mark Taylor
10 Ian Healy
11 Courtney Walsh
12 Mark Waugh
13 Anil Kumble
14 Rahul Dravid
15 Graham Gooch
16 Andrew Flintoff
17 Matthew Hayden
18 Merv Hughes
19 Aravinda de Silva
20 Adam Gilchrist
21 David Boon
22 Martin Crowe
23 Stephen Fleming
24 Brett Lee
25 Darren Lehmann
26 Steve Waugh
27 Jacques Kallis/ Shaun Pollock
28 Saeed Anwar/ Mohammad Yousuf
29 Shoaib Akhtar/ Craig McDermott
30 Kevin Pietersen
31 Tim May
32 Robin Smith
33 Allan Donald
34 Bruce Reid
35 Michael Vaughan
36 Andy Flower
37 Stephen Harmison
38 Sanath Jayasuriya
39 Stuart MacGill
40 Kapil Dev
41 Justin Langer
42 Ravi Shastri
43 Michael Atherton
44 Alec Stewart
45 Waqar Younis
46 Dilip Vengsarkar
47 Chris Cairns
48 Brian McMillan
49 Darren Berry
50 Jamie Siddons
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Shane Warne was a great cricketer but he simply doesn't know how to judge greatness. First and foremost Tendulkar is not even close to Brian Lara in terms of greatness. Lara is the greatest batsman ever. Yes even with Bradman around. Secondly Murli is the best spinner I have ever seen and no Tendulkar could tame him, only Lara. And as for Warne he would not call Lara the greatest because Lara has battered him so many times. Tendulkar is 23 on my list. And in my top twenty only Mgrath and Ware features. Ricky Ponting is yet to play a test macth against a really decent bowling attack. He will not be on my list untill I see him against a great attack.
Posted by Narli on (September 01 2007, 20:08 PM GMT)It is generally great to see how great cricketers rate other great cricketers. If I'm not mistaken there have been a few such lists for various countries by Toni Cozier, Greg Chappell and Toney Greg who do not have organic brain pathology. No doubt that Sir Garry Sobers was the greatest and the most gifted to ever to play the game even after a bottle of Rum. He would list in my top 10 even if he batted right handed. How about Late Malcom M (gretest fast bowler), Viv R, Joel G, Sir Don, Michel H, Dennis L. Perhaps Shane Warne plans to go down to minus ten.
Posted by danarkii on (September 01 2007, 18:46 PM GMT)Even though Warney's ranking has created a lot of controversies, one should understant that it is based on the impact made by the players on him. But it would be intersting to know where he would rank himself in that tall order because it is obvious that warne's name will be present in the list of great cricketers not only of the last two decades, but also of all time.
Posted by cricketfan on (September 01 2007, 18:28 PM GMT)justifying tenulkar position as 1 comapard to lara- Tendulkar also bowls well and took about 150 ODI wickets and 42 test wickets. Again the test average and ODI averages are far better than Lara. (54 and 44 tenulkar a, 50 and 40 for lara repectively) Shane warne must be knowing that tendulkar turns balls sometimes more than him and Muralidharan. Lara is unique and is no doubt a genious.
Posted by owdmon on (September 01 2007, 17:41 PM GMT)Has whoever posted the comment from Cricket4life deliberately spelt grammar wrongly in a feeble attempt to make a point or does he not know any better?
Posted by GQSilk on (September 01 2007, 17:14 PM GMT)That is the most rubbish I have ever graced upon. Viv Richards, Desmond Haynes(I reckon he played against them), nor Shivnarine Chanderpaul made this list. Brian Lara is not number 1. Ian Healy is at number 10. Total nonsense in my opinion, but again it is Warne's choice.
Posted by cricket4life on (September 01 2007, 16:51 PM GMT)People, this is a list of people that Warne things are not only great great cricketers but are also great human beings, and that is from his first hand experience. They are not based on your individual experiences, or stat books, so let it be and appreciate the fact that a great cricketer has noticed the other great ones. As for the names I read above: Inzi is good but is surely not to the level of Sachin, Lara, & Ponting; Javed M. is infact related to an underworld Don, and finally Bradman, well, his name does not need to be mentioned, he is by default the greatest. Oh and not more things, before being a critic of Warne's list, PLEASE be one for your grammer and spellings.
Posted by mohammed_ameen on (September 01 2007, 15:46 PM GMT)i think so there are many problems in his ranking becoz he has forgotten many other great players who is more deserved in the rankings one of them are javed miandad, inzaman,imran khan,and many other players and is looking like shuffled from the deserving ranking
Posted by Vinodudma on (September 01 2007, 15:45 PM GMT)There is no doubt about shane warnes cricket.He was a great cricketer. But to be a great critic he has to watch a lot of matches.It is better not to publish such poor openions which can be hurted great cricketers
Posted by Justin on (September 01 2007, 15:44 PM GMT)Naren: Of course it shows his bias. Wouldn't your top 50 cricketer list show *your* bias? Interesting read, to see how Warnie rates people. But people are taking it entirely too seriously.