I am a strong follower of cricket from early 1990's to till this day. I have watched most of the matches of both these players .
This article is analyzing whether “Virat kohli, the run machine is better than the God Sachin Tendulkar?"
Many experts saying "We cannot compare players from different era " . They are right because you cannot compare two players from different era by just looking at the career statics and the numbers. But if you know the what exact changes happened in the game between those era and you have watched both players game then I believe you can judge who is better.
Who is Great Cricket player :- It is possible that as a cricketer Virat still can improve and achieve better than Sachin by the end of his career. Virat Kohli is so talented with his batting skills and still improving .He got very good temperament and he is maintaining high fitness level. So no one can say that, Virat will not become a greater cricketer than Sachin in future at this point of time .He got minimum 7-8 year left in his career. So this is something we need to wait and see.
Who is Great Cricket Super Sta
r :- Greatness in terms of the height of stardom is something Virat kohli will never achieve compared to what Sachin Tendulkar had achieved at his prime. Following are few reasons .
- The rapid growth of cricket in India and the cricket commercialization in the sub continent is all happened in 1990's. This was the time when Sachin Tendulkar is at his peak of form. He was dominating one day cricket with aggressive batting. After 1996 world cup Sachin Tendulkar become the biggest star in India. No other celebrity in india any where closer to the brand Sachin tendulkar. Cricket fever was also at its peak during the mid and till the end of 1990's .When India is playing a one day match ,it is very normal those days that, there will be low attendance in offices and schools.
In kohli's case scenarios were different. Cricket already grown in India at its maximum. Its a continuation and slight improvements of the changes what happened in 1990's. There where other top performers in team to share the stardom in Kohli’s team. Dhoni is there with power of his captaincy records. Rohit sharma was there on one day internationals, with multiple double hundreds. Its not like Sachin where people will turn off TV when he is out.
- Sachin's batting records and the way he achieved those with the consistency and the aggressiveness was no one seen before in world cricket. Sachin started opening for India in 1994 in onedays and started hitting centuries . With in four year he got the record of most hundreds in one day internationals. When Sachin maid the record of scoring most one day international hundreds by passing West Indian Desmond Haynes, he was just 25 year old. Haynes's world record was 17 hundreds. In year 1998 Sachin scored 9 one day hundreds. The difference between Sachin and the previous record holder was huge. There was no one in the world to compare with Sachin in one day cricket during those period of time. So there was no element of doubt that who is the best.
Kohli is 30 year old now and he is still trailing Sachin's records. he can break the record of most one day hundreds. But it will not be as dramatic and exciting as Sachin's career.
- Indian team in 1990's was weaker compared to the team in 2010's. So dependency was much higher on Sachin's performance. This dependency slightly started changing only after 1999-2000 when Ganguly and Dravid started playing much better and later Sehwag, Yuvraj and kaif joined the team.
In Kohli's case, India is one of the top team in world. There are players Dhawan, Rohit, Dhoni...etc like match winners in team. There is no unbeatable Australian side exist now like what Sachin’s team faced. So we cannot see dramatic wins which often happend in 1990’s, those achived against much better sides.
- Performance in world cup's:- Sachin was the top scorer in 1996 and 2003 world cups. 2011 world cup which India won, where Sachin was the top scorer for India and second in the list of 2011 world cup top scorers, just 18 runs behind Tilekaratne dilshan. You can see the consistency , longevity and the standard of his batting performance by just looking only at his world cup stats. Sachin holds the record of maximum number of runs in world cups. Sachin performances comes in right venue and at right time that helped him to get more popularity and fan base.
Kohli is playing his 3rd world cup now and he did some good world cup performances but not great yet. He still making fans based on his one day and T20 performances . But world cup performances are another thing because here all the players in the world performing under the same condition and platform. Kohli can still do it in world cups ,but it will be hard to match with Sachin’s world cup records even if he performed great in upcoming world cups.
- Public image as a sports personality:- This is one area where Sachin handled himself very well. He maintained public life and cricket super stardom in way that, there will be very less haters. Sachin got highest civilian honor ‘Bharat Ratna’ not just because of his cricket achievements .His popularity and public image played a big role in it.
Kohli no where close in this criteria
So I think Sachin will remain as the “Greatest cricket super star” that India ever produced for many more years.