So much has been said and written about Sachin Tendulkar over the years, and especially this past week, that there can't be much that remains. But I'll try! Not everyone has been eulogising over his talent. Some have poo-pooed his statistical achievements.
Is it surprising that he man who has played more international matches over the longest period will have compiled more centuries? Well, no, but it's hardly Sachin's fault that he was so precociously gifted at the age of 16 and has enjoyed almost continuous fitness and form ever since!
Of course he scores so many runs; it's because India has such perfect batting tracks. It is true that Tendulkar has played more Tests on home soil than in any other country but actually his centuries per Test percentage is equal home and away (27%) and his batting average is only slightly superior in India. Of course, his performances are as much about the opposition as the pitch and his own batsmanship. He started out in the late 1980s and '90s when India were far from one of the top nations they have been in recent years. The Windies and Australia were top dogs during much of his career, yet some of his best performances have come against the Aussies. True, he has an average of 68 in Sri Lanka yet a paltry (by his standards) 40 in neighbouring Pakistan, which usually boasts similar types of batting track.
All this got me thinking about other players. Do they favour Asian pitches or are they generally home birds, building their Test match reputations on home successes? It turns out there is quite a mix. Matthew Hayden was famously written off as a 'flat track bully', capable of hitting huge scores only on easy-paced pitches. However, I would argue that he probably just loved the sun on his back, scoring 21 of his 30 hundreds in Australia in only 56 Tests (that's a mighty fine 38% rate). He also did well in the West Indies and India but his batting average was 40 or below in Sri Lanka, England, South Africa and New Zealand.
Many top stars of today are similarly home-biased. Mahela Jayawardene, Shiv Chanderpaul, Kevin Pietersen (I mean England, not South Africa!) and Younis Khan all hail from different lands but all have far superior Test records on home territory. All but five of Virender Sehwag's 22 three-figure scores have come in Asia. In terms of centuries, Lara and Ponting have fairly even hundreds per match ratios at home and abroad (only just below Tendulkar's) but, unlike the Little Master, their batting averages away from home let them down. Graham Gooch was playing Test cricket into his 40s, aggregating 20 centuries in 118 matches but he, like Geoff Boycott before him, scored relatively few overseas.
So have there been any players who have a better century per match ratio in away series? Sunil Gavaskar famously held Indian sides together with his exploits against the dominant quicks of Australia and the Windies and hit three figures 18 times in only 60 Tests abroad, a ratio of 30%, better than Tendulkar's. Both Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook have fared better overseas, too, thanks largely to their appetite for Ashes runs Down Under! Cook averages a hundred in every four Tests. Pretty good but not in the Tendulkar/Younis/Sangakkara class. However, Cook is only 27 and if he keeps going at his current rate into his late 30s, he could well end up matching Tendulkar, at least in Tests.
Other players to have scored more centuries per Test on foreign soil include Steve Waugh and Graeme Smith who, like Waugh, particularly enjoys English pitches, not known for being kind to batsmen. Strauss and co had better watch out this summer!
In conclusion, it's horses for courses. Most players tend to do better on home territory, whether on flat tracks or green tops. Can anyone match Tendulkar's record for Test centuries? Well, one man I have yet to mention is Jacques Kallis, The South African has only a slightly better record at home (where pitches often suit fast bowlers) than abroad, where his rate of hundreds per match is only slightly below Tendulkar's. He has reached three figures 42 times, nine short of the record holder but in 36 fewer matches! In his 37th year, it's not about whether Kallis could eventually match Tendulkar because he probably doesn't have enough years ahead of him at this level. Instead, it's more a case of what might have been. If South Africa had played as many games as India, it would probably be Kallis at the top of the pile in Test cricket. He is that good.
I haven't focussed on ODIs, of course. That is where Kallis suffers in comparison with Tendulkar and it is the aggregate of Test and one-day centuries that has made Sachin the outstanding all-round batsman of his era, home or abroad, brown or green, flat or bouncy, and however you bend the statistics, they all point to the Indian as the post-war greatest of them all.
