Well, during the recent times when nothing appears favorable for the Indian Cricket Team, especially after the loss of ODI series against Bangladesh this week, this particular news will defiantly provide a bit of a relief for the millions of the Indian fans of the game. According to a news item currently running on Cricket.com.au, the Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar has been voted as the best Test player of the 21st century in a fans’ poll conducted by Cricket Australia (CA) on their official website. After grabbing 23% of the votes, Sachin Tendulkar is far ahead of second-placed Kumar Sangakkara, who could get only 14% of the votes.
Tendulkar, during his glorious journey spanning 24-years in international career has got a record of 200 Tests to his name. He had scored a whooping 15921 runs at an average of 53.78. After the beginning of the current century,, that is, after the year 2000, Tendulkar scored 10080 runs from 127 Tests at a pretty impressive average of 52.22 with 29 of his 51 Test centuries coming in this period.
The other top five include, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis.All of the above mentioned great cricketers have made significant contributions in the success that their teams achieved during this period.
On a different note,Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan, two of the greatest spin bowlers the game has ever seen, find themselves in the 7th and 9th positions having only got 9% and 3% of the votes respectively.
It is really heartening to see that our star cricketer has been chosen as the best test player of 21st century by the cricket fans.
Here is the list of top 10 Test players of the 21st century according to a CA poll:
|
Rank |
Player |
Country |
% of votes |
|
1 |
Sachin Tendulkar |
IND |
23 |
|
2 |
Kumar Sangakkara |
SL |
14 |
|
3 |
Adam Gilchrist |
AUS |
13 |
|
4 |
Ricky Ponting |
AUS |
11 |
|
5 |
Jacques Kallis |
SA |
11 |
|
6 |
AB de Villiers |
SA |
10 |
|
7 |
Shane Warne |
AUS |
9 |
|
8 |
Glenn McGrath |
AUS |
5 |
|
9 |
Muttiah Muralitharan |
SL |
3 |
|
10 |
Dale Steyn |
SA |
1 |