Cricket: Comparing Sachin Tendulkar And Jacques Kallis

The modern era of the game has been characterised by the genius of the Little Master Sachin Tendulkar. A batsman of such sublime skill that he has smashed every batting record in the book into oblivion. Then backed by the huge Indian fan base, hysteria has surrounded his deeds to the extent that God like status is attached to him

Duly with this fanzine comparisons have been made to accentuate his greatness. The key one being made to the immortal Don Bradman. You can judge the merits of this in which ever way you like, but the truth of it is it’s impossible to compare because of the difference between the eras they played in. So you can’t judge accurately on figures between the two because whatever side you favour you can use the relative perception of difficulty or ease of the era to support or discount the meaning of the figures of both. Then judging on skill is nigh impossible too for not many are still in the land of the living who saw Bradman bat to make comment.

In truth there are many you could feel justified in comparing to Tendulkar across the ages. Names such as Wally Hammond, Len Hutton, Neil Harvey, George Headley, Dudley Nourse, Everton Weekes, Graeme Pollock, Javed Miandad, Viv Richards, Allan Border and Ken Barrington are some that instantly spring to mind. Then there are many others I am sure I’ve overlooked.

Though the same difficulty arises in putting the eras in context to judge the players in question.

This isn’t the case with players from the same era and as such comparisons in this age have mainly been between Tendulkar and Australia’s run machine Ricky Ponting. Though when you dissect both in many regards it becomes apparent that Ponting is so in the great Indian’s shadow. However, when you bring up the career of South Africa’s Jacques Kallis and put it side by side with Tendulkar, then the difference in the two is very hard to split with most favouring Tendulkar because of the sexiness of his batting compared to Kallis’s stoic nature.

Analysing Their Figures: Sachin Tendulkar: 179 Tests, 294 innings, 14810 runs, Average 56.52, 51 centuries, 60- 50′s Jacques Kallis: 145 Tests, 246 innings, 11947 runs, Average 57.43, 40 centuries, 54- 50′s

Remarkably similar figures aren’t they? Thus I have quite a job to analyse them, but im a sucker for punishment, so here I go!

Tendulkar has batted in 48 more innings than Kallis and has 11 more centuries. Though going on the strike rate of Kallis in scoring a century roughly every 6 innings, if he had the same amount of innings as Sachin, he would likely have 48 centuries. Separating the two by 3 centuries in Sachin’s favour.

This might be speculation to judge Kallis on figures in the now to judge his future deeds, but going on his 6 centuries from 19 innings in 2010 you can support his sustained form.

We will amend this by discounting the centuries against teams deemed as minnows in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. So this leaves the two on this tally:Sachin Tendulkar 51 total centuries (8 versus minnows) Jacques Kallis 48 total centuries (4 against minnows)

Thus so far we can weight the comparison in Kallis’s favour, but if we can make a judgement using the worst we have to apply the same to the best.

So with this in mind a comparison has to be made between the two and their performances against the great Australian Teams.

In this case Tendulkar towers over Kallis with an average of 60.59 and 13 centuries compared to Jacques average of 40.58 and only 4 centuries. That indeed gives Sachin’s greater weight, but the knock-out blow in Kallis’s favour. When looking at figures is the fact that he plays the majority of his cricket in the bowling friendly conditions of South Africa, compared to Sachin who is plying his trade in the batting friendly confines of India.

Some might discount this by claiming the prevalence of spinning decks in India, but in response to this I’d say this: Indian batsmen and playing spin is aking to the ease which ducks feel in water.

Support In The Team:

In both the players cases they have struggled throughout phases in their career with having little or no support in the batting with them. Sachin, for most of his early career, was the lone ranger for India especially away from home until the likes of Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman arrived in the mid 90′s and Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in the early 00′s. Then also Kallis, until recently, with the emergence of batsmen like AB De Villiers and Hasim Amla has only had average or better than average batsmen supporting him in the line up.

In this regard there is really no comparison. For though Sachin was blighted in the early parts of his career by the fragility of his batting mates, this hasn’t been the case in the latter parts of his career batting at 4 in a line up regarded as one of the strongest batting line ups in the games history. So the support given to him in the situations he has walked into can’t be underplayed. It’s easier to excel walking in at 4 with your Team 2/180 than 2/20

Outside Factors For Both:

One can’t have a discussion about Sachin Tendulkar without making mention about the immense pressure on him to perform. This through the 1.2 billion cricket crazy Indian’s that hang off his every move. In truth, in the game’s history, there probably hasn’t been a player with as much pressure on him to perform than Sachin Tendulkar. So in the overall comparison this can’t be discounted.

Also Sachin Tendulkar had to face the skill and fury of some of Kallis’s exceptional bowling team mates, names such as greats like Dale Steyn, Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock. Whereas the same can’t be said in the might of India’s bowlers that Kallis had to deal with.

The thing I instantly factor in when analysing Kallis’s exploits with the bat is how his role as bowler has impacted on these figures. In his career he has bowled over 18337 balls, so you can’t discount how that would effect his batting from how it tires him out and also the added burden on him having dual roles in the Team.

To prove this point of the effect of dual roles on player you only have to look at the example of Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara to give it credence. As Keeper/Batsman 81 innings, 3117 runs, average 40.48, 7 centuries, 11 fifties

Batsman Only: 81 innings, 5311 runs, average 72.75, 18 centuries, 23 fifties

Huge difference isn’t it? And it is highly likely that if Kallis were solely a batsman, his figures would dramatically improve as well

Summary:

The figures make it impossible to separate the two for they are so similar. So in essence, it becomes a choice between which style of batsman you value the most in the game

The Sachin Tendulkar’s cavalier crowd pleasing style of batting or the Jacques Kallis stoic safe as houses batting?

In a team sense in Test cricket, both are like gold and can’t be put above each other in importance.

So sadly for all my analysis I might need to judge this as a draw on the basis on it’s impossible to split the two.

Am I chicken in not picking a winner. Definitely, but ill leave it up to you the reader to adjudge the winner!