Tendulkar 10 years down the line

LONDON, JUNE 15. Sachin Tendulkar would have amassed 20,480 runs and 81 centuries in the next 10 years if he maintains his present form, according to an assessment by Wisden cricket monthly.

In the past 27 months since February 1999, Tendulkar had piled up 1720 runs in 15 Tests at a near Bradmanesque average of 71.67, it said.

Should Tendulkar continue at that rate in the next decade, playing 12 Tests a year and hang up his boots at the age of 38, he would have amassed a staggering 20,480 and 81 centuries in 202 Tests.

His average will be a mammoth 66.06, placing him all alone on a unique second tier of champion batsmen - still behind Bradman (99.94) but distinctly ahead of Pollock, Headley and Herbert Sutcliffe who have a 60-plus average, Wisden wrote.

The jury is still unsure if he would have outshone Don Bradman if he had been around in the run-thirsty 1930s, but the Indian maestro had two sweet statistics to savour on his 28th birthday in April, Wisden writes in a piece headlined ``Tendulkar the great (and getting greater).''

It went on to cite that Tendulkar had 28 very prolific years and 27 of the most prodigious months in the history of batting.

On his birthday, Tendulkar's record in limited-overs international stood at 10,179 runs with 28 hundreds - twice as good as anyone else at the same age - the magazine says that in Tests, his omnipotence is equally impressive. He was 1676 runs clear of the previous record held by Javed Miandad and his 25 Test centuries dwarf the 15 made at the same age by Bradman and Neil Harvey, his nearest rival.

Wisden writes that average-wise Tendulkar still trails The Don, who made 3849 runs at 98.69 by his 28th birthday. However, even that gap was closing.

- PTI

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