BANGALORE, India, CMC- Former Australian captain Steve Waugh has rated West Indies’ Brian Lara and India’s Sachin Tendulkar on equal terms because they played in different conditions and under different sort of pressures. Waugh’s comments come on the heels of statements from Former West Indies fast bowler and current analyst Michael Holding rating Lara as a technically better player than Tendulkar.
“I hate comparisons between players because it unnecessarily creates controversy,” Waugh told reporters.
“Both played under different pressure and for different teams. I would place them pretty much on equal terms,”
The former West Indies captain, Lara and Tendulkar were unbelievable players, who won games for their teams, playing under different conditions, Waugh said.
“Sachin was carrying on his shoulders amazing pressure of 1.3 billion people,” said Waugh.
“Brian obviously was the best player in a weak team.”
Another former Australian captain, Ricky Ponting had rated Lara ahead of Sachin as he felt the West Indian helped his team win more matches.
But Holding said while Tendulkar made a lot more runs than Lara, he was certain that if Tendulkar and Lara were batting against the same bowler, Lara would perform better.
“I have never seen a batsman play spin and medium-pace better than Lara and I say that keeping in mind Vivian Richards, who is the best batsman I have seen,” he told The Telegraph of India.
Holding said Lara was the best batsman against spin and medium-pace but he rated Richards as the best batsman ever.
“Viv made runs against everybody — the fastest bowlers in the world, like Imran Khan, the best swing bowlers in the world, like Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev, the best spinners, like Bishan Bedi, (Bhagwat) Chandrasekhar, Abdul Qadir,” said Holding.
“He made runs against everybody. Lara made runs against spinners and medium-pacers, but used to be in trouble against real pace, like against a Shoaib Akhtar or a Wasim Akram.”
