Sachin vs Steve vs Andy vs ?

A lot of things have been written about who the best batsman in the world is. Over the past few years the competition has been between Sachin Tendulkar, Steve Waugh and Brian Lara. But Lara, due to various reasons, cricketing and otherwise, seems to have lost out in the race and, hence, it became a two-horse race between Sachin and Steve, with Sachin being ahead purely because of his style of attacking batting and his technique, which everyone loves to watch.

But today, it requires another look at this question of best batsman because of two reasons:

1.The injury and hence the forced lay-off of Sachin.
2. The emergence of Andy Flower as a very big force to reckon with as far as batsmanship is concerned.

For those who do not know, the Price Water Cooper ratings (the Wisden as far as cricket ratings are concerned) recently rated Andy as the No.1 batsman in the world with Steve as No.2 and Sachin as No. 3.This rating is mainly due to the two reasons mentioned above. Moreover, Andy has the second highest average among the current players, second only to Sachin and is above Dravid and Steve Waugh. What's more, he has been in tremendous form in the last 18 months, scoring less than 40 in a completed innings only once in the last 15 or so times when he has batted. All these signs should sound ominous for Sachin and Steve and their fans as well.

It should bother Tendulkar much more than it does Steve Waugh, because for all practical reasons, Steve was never the best batsman in the world (and he accepted it himself). He was second to Sachin and he is still second, though this time to Andy. So as far as he is concerned, he retains his place and it is Sachin who has slipped down. Sachin Tendulkar, who was always under the cloud that he could not produce as many match-winning innings as Lara or Steve, is now being threatened with the loss of his crown.

That's what makes the Indian tour of South Africa very important for Sachin. Not only has he to show that his injury has healed fully, he also needs to show the world that he is still the best. And knowing Sachin's penchant for landmarks and records, he should be itching to have a go at the South Africans. But he needs to be careful in that he is coming after a very long lay-off, with no match practice whatsoever, and he needs to take on the might of the South African pace attack right away (not that he is not capable but it is always tough coming back).

He has to do this in a place where he did not fare too well the last time the Indians were there. He scored around 230 runs in the three Tests last time and that included the magnificent 167, which he made along with Mohammad Azharuddin, which turned out to be a face-saving knock for India. Nowadays, a series average of less than 60 for Sachin is considered a failure by his standards.

Many were sure that he would have done great in Sri Lanka what with his average against them being more than 70. That's where he missed out. So Sachin has a lot to prove in the forthcoming tour' he needs to prove that he is fully fit and also show that he is the best in the world, for Lara may come and go, Steve may come and go, Andy may come and go, but Sachin needs to show that he is consistently the best and not the best only when in form.

Andy Flower is turning out to be a run machine, but he has two things going against him:

1. In the last 18 months, when he has made the bulk of his runs, most of the Tests which he played were in Zimbabwe, where the pitches favour neither spin nor pace.
2. Unfortunately, playing for Zimbabwe, he would be playing far lesser matches than Sachin or Steve and he would also have huge pressure on him every time because his batting partners are not even close to him in terms of batting prowess and he would keep running out of partners.

All these take nothing away from Andy. He does both wicket keeping and batting and that is one hell of a thing to do. Can't imagine a keeper scoring so heavily. He has done great work over the past 18 months but it remains to be seen whether he can continue this on foreign soil and against stronger opposition.

Which finally brings us to the question: who would replace Andy (after his form runs out) or Steve (after he retires in 2-3 years) in the race against Sachin. I assume here that Sachin would regain his form and crown in the coming months. The vote should go to Rahul Dravid. No, not because he is Indian, but thinking of other batsmen in other teams, Dravid seems the best equipped, in terms of technique, fire and the urge to do well. He has replaced Sourav as India's second best batsman and lately he has gone on a run-scoring spree.

Even in Sri Lanka, his wicket was considered as the prized one and he is considered as the best player of spin by Shane Warne. He seems so focused nowadays and also has taken up a lot of responsibility and started to score more freely. He will not blast the attack, as Sachin does, but still he is turning out to be very consistent and has started to place a big price on his wicket nowadays. Looking at the batsmen in the other teams, the big men coming to mind are Inzamam (he needs to get more consistent), Mark Waugh (he also needs to be more consistent but he is running out of time. He is 36 now), Lara (he just does not seem to have his mind right and the team is simply too weak to support him). No one seems to be consistent and if Dravid can show that consistency, he could turn out to be a contender to Sachin but still Sachin would come out on top purely for his greatness and the class of his execution.

There seems to be a curious thing in this. All three at the top now, Sachin, Steve and Andy are humble, down to earth with no flashy stuff associated with them. They give their all on the field and are very much simple off it. Lara, who was in the race sometime back, has dropped out, mainly because something in his mind was not right and his off the field flashy stuff did not go well either. The contender, Dravid, is also a humble, down to earth cricketer. Is there a lesson in this for all of us?

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