The Little Master, Sachin Tendulkar, will retire next month following what will be his 200th test. The game will lose a genius and the most prolific scorer of all time. But is he really the best test batsman since Don Bradman?
Cricket writer Adrian Seconi takes on the impossible task of ranking the leading contenders.
Garry Sobers
West Indies
Record: 93 tests, 8032 runs at 57.78, including 26 hundreds.
Pros: He was athletic and agile in the field and a more than useful bowler who was often denied opportunities because others, such as Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith and Lance Gibbs, hogged the ball.
But it was his batting which took the breath away.
It was both graceful and belligerent, powerful and elegant, orthodox and versatile.
Cons: When you have that much talent you can be forgiven for over-reaching and throwing your wicket away on the odd occasion.
Rank: The best since Bradman.
Viv Richards
West Indies
Record: 121 tests, 8540 runs at 50.23, including 24 hundreds.
Pros: He is a personal favourite and, arguably, the most destructive batsman of all time.
Others might have averaged more, perhaps even been more reliable, but no-one struck fear into the opposition like the Master Blaster.
Cons: Like Sobers, over-confidence was often his greatest shortcoming.
But he also played in a dominant team and did not go out to bat with his team in trouble too often.
It helped he never had to face the feared West Indies pace attack other than in the nets during practice.
Rank: No 2.
Sachin Tendulkar
India
Record: 198 tests, 15,837 runs at 53.86, including 51 hundreds.
Pros: For balance and poise at the crease and sheer volume of runs, Tendulkar aces even Bradman.
His dazzling skill has kept him in the national team since he made his debut as a 16-year-old against Pakistan in 1989.
Along the way, he has put his name to just about every batting record in the book.
He has more runs, more centuries and has played more tests than anyone else. He is also the batsman Bradman thought was most like himself.
Cons: His genius and durability is unquestionable. But was he as dominant during his era as, say, Sobers or Richards? His highest ICC career rating (898) lags behind contemporaries such as Ricky Ponting (942) and Brian Lara (911) and even Kumar Sangakkara (938) and Michael Clarke (900).
There is also a feeling he hung on a little long and took some of the shine of his reputation.
Rank: No 3.
Brian Lara
West Indies
Record: 131 tests, 11,953 runs at 52.88, including 34 hundreds.
Pros: No-one could manipulate a bowling attack quite like Lara.
You shifted a fielder 2cm to the left, he would whack it 2cm to the right.
It must have felt like a game to him.
Perhaps his famously high back lift bought him the extra precious few hundredths of a second he needed to place the ball exactly where he wanted it. In the space of two months in 1994, he posted scores of 375 and 501 not out to break the highest test and first-class scores.
In April 2004, he scored 400 in a test against England to break the highest test score once again.
Cons: Had he played in a more dominant team, Lara would probably rank higher.
Rank: No 4.
Sunil Gavaskar
India
Record: 125 tests, 10,122 runs at 51.12, including 34 hundreds.
Pros: Built his career around an unshakable determination and a faultless technique.
He was the perfect opener, who concentrated on blunting the new ball in a era when fast bowlers ruled the cricket world.
Cons: He sacrificed some of his flair in search of consistency.
Rank: No 5.
Greg Chappell
Australia
Record: 87 tests, 7110 runs at 53.86, including 24 hundreds.
Pros: During an era (1970-80s) when most batsmen struggled to get their averages above 50, Chappell averaged a shade under 54.
It was better than all of his major contemporaries, including Viv Richards (50.23) and Sunil Gavaskar (51.12).
Cons: Countryman Ricky Ponting (13,378) scored almost twice as many runs at test level and Allan Border (11,174) also mounts a compelling case for a higher ranking than Chappell.
Rank: No 6.
Apologies
To all those wonderful batsmen who did not make this list. Who knows how good Barry Richards and Graeme Pollock could have been had their test careers not been cut short following the sporting bans placed on South Africa because of the apartheid policies? The fact is they had only brief international careers and were not able to realise their potential.
Anyone who played with Don Bradman or before him was not considered. That knocked out English favourite WG Grace and the likes of countryman Jack Hobbs.
There was no love for Geoff Boycott, Rahul Dravid or Steve Waugh - all fine batsmen but they did not always get the pulse racing. Ditto Jacques Kallis.
