The legend of Sachin Tendulkar once again dominated another
voting round, this time conducted by Cricket Australia. The Indian batting
maestro was adjudged the best Test player of the 21st century by cricket fans
on an online vote.
The online poll, which witnessed more than 16,000 fans
participating, was conducted on cricket.com.au to find out the best Test player
since 2000. After ten days of voting and deliberations, the result was released
yesterday.
Tendulkar polled an impressive 23% of the votes, followed by
prodigious Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara in the second spot.
Australian duo of Adam Gilchrist and Rickey Ponting followed the roll, with
former South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis occupying the fifth spot.
Kallis' Proteas compatriot AB de Villiers pipped Aussie
wizard Shane Warne to the sixth spot. Glenn McGrath, Muthiah Muralidaran and
Dale Steyn complete the top-ten list.
Surprisingly, in Cricket Austalia's version of Top 10 best
Test players, Tendulkar was placed in the fifth spot with Adam Gilchrist toping
the list.
In an unrivaled career spanning 24 years, Tendulkar played
200 Test matches and scored 15921 runs at an average of 53.78. He also scored a
record 51 Test hundreds and 68 fifties, making him arguably the most prolific
batsman of all time.
