Bradman Vs Tendulkar Vs Richards

I planned to publish this article after Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement. However, he remains strong and shows no signs of weariness after 23 years of international cricket. The first point is to conclude whether such a comparison is justifiable because the three played cricket at different times and had to face different conditions. For this reason alone, it is brave to make a comparison of who was the greatest hitter of all time. First, let’s take a brief look at their careers.

Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards was probably the most destructive hitter of all time. He played his pulverizing shots against the best bowlers of his time and crushed them to submission. Viv Richards made his test debut in 1974 and was immediately recognized as a brilliant outfielder. Aside from being a deceptive bowler at halftime, the man was easily the most devastating hitter of all time. His hitting gained an aura due to his arrogant and aggressive presence on the field and his arrogance while walking while hitting. This clearly told the opponents that the King was here and that they better be careful. The term “master blaster” was coined to describe Viv Richards. He played 121 test matches and scored 8,540 runs, an average of 50.23 over 24 centuries. He still holds the record for the fastest testing century in history, scoring on 56 balls against the United Kingdom during his 1986 tour of the West Indies. He was also a member of the famous West Indies team of the 1970s, which won the first two one-day International World Cups. His hitting style and versatility as a half-time outfielder and pitcher made him an ideal one-day player. He scored his runs in one-day international games with an average of 47 and a strike rate of 96. He also collected more than 100 wickets in one day. In 2002, Wisden considered him the best ODI hitter of all time. He was also the most successful West Indies captain of all time and never lost a series of trials as a captain.

In 1976, the West Indies was going to visit England for a highly anticipated series of tests. The captain of England at the time, in a bravado, declared to the media that he would cause the West Indies team to humble themselves with misery. Grovel is a term associated with slavery and the statement was not well received by the public, the media, and even less so, the West Indies cricket team. What followed that statement made history when the West Indies wiped out the English team with their four-pronged attack led by Michael Holding and Viv was in her devastating prime. He scored over 1000 runs in the series with a superb 291 at Oval to top things off. The West Indies won the series 3-0 and Tony Grieg later said he was the one who wanted to crawl off the field. In my opinion, Viv was the best hitter of all time against genuine fast bowling and showed almost contempt against the best, like Imran Khan and Dennis Lille, while hooking and pulling his short pitches with tremendous power. Remember these were the times when helmets were yet to come and finally when they did arrive Richards refused to wear them saying he didn’t need them. Viv Richards retired in 1991 from both forms of international cricket. If you ask any cricketer of his generation who was the greatest hitter of all time, he will invariably tell you that it was Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards.

Don Bradman is rated by most as the greatest hitter of all time. He holds a record that can be considered the greatest sporting achievement in any sport. There are no prizes for getting it right; his batting average from the test game was 99.96. How he practiced with a golf ball and a single cricket stump are stories that are part of Australian folklore. During the great depression years, he lit up the cricket grounds with various records that stand to this day. Taking him out was equivalent to taking out three batters. Like Viv Richards and Sachin Tendulkar, he drew huge crowds. However, the man was a complex person and did not mix easily with team members. However, his opinions were highly sought after, even after his retirement. Bradman scored 29 hundreds in 52 games. It’s actually a hundred every two games, which is incredible. For another incredible record, he hit 12 double hundreds out of 29. He even reached three double hundreds in a single test series against arch-nemesis England in 1930. He made centuries in six test matches in a row. He is also the fastest to reach 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000 and 6000 races in test cricket. He fell short of 7000 runs for four runs. This was, incidentally, for that failure in his last test appearance, when he fell in love with a duck and returned to the pavilion half laughing at the irony.

The only test series he performed on next was the much maligned body line series. On a visit to Australia in 1931, English captain Douglas Jardine devised a technique called bodyline, primarily to stop the Don Bradman treadmill. Working on an observation made during a Bradman entry in England, he decided to attack Bradman with short pitch bowls. He, along with the selectors, selected three fast bowlers for the tour led by Harold Larwood and Bill Voce. This tactic worked well against the Australians and Bradman. Although Bradman managed just one hundred to establish an Australian victory, they won just that single test match in the series. The Australians were defeated in the series. Bradman’s hitting style changed forever. There was a lot of uproar about the tactic and a lot has been written about it. However, when I try to imagine Viv Richards in the Don’s shoes, I feel like the tactic would have failed. Viv probably would have hit half of the short pitches in the stands. This is conjecture, of course, but food for thought nonetheless. This weakness against short pitch bowling is the only flaw that can be found in Bradman’s repertoire.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, in my opinion, is the greatest hitter of all time. I will rate Bradman ahead of Sachin in testing and Viv Richards as number one combined in one day with Sachin. Much has been written about the little master from India and I can only add one point that has not been discussed much about Sachin. That is your balance in the fold. He appears to be putting little effort into his footwork, yet he gets into position so quickly that he is deadly effective and combined with the massive talent, there is no more complete hitter in his skills on the fold and there never has been. Sachin has been around for 23 years in international cricket and bowlers are still looking for a weakness that they can exploit. His 100 international centuries record is unlikely to be broken, as is Sir Don Bradman’s 99.96 batting average. He has broken virtually all batting records and continues to play at the highest level. The hunger for racing has not abated after 23 years of tough international cricket. I think readers of this article should go to Wiki or other similar standard pages to see the list of Sachin records. He has acquired so many that I cannot list them here. However, it is important to note that you have obtained the highest number of tests / centuries and the highest number of hundreds / centuries of a day. Could Bradman have made the mental and technical adjustments necessary to continue playing so much cricket and against so many quality opposition teams? Well, we’ll never know for sure, but I don’t think so. Therefore, at the risk of facing many dissensions, I rate Sachin as number one and Sir Don as extremely close number two.

Several other hitters have come very close to these three in their claims as the best hitter. These include Walter Hammond, Garfield Sobers, Len Hutton, Brian Lara, etc. Yet these three players have been the most effective for their teams and remain the best hitters of all time.