ESPNcricinfo Awards 2013: Tendulkar voted cricketer of the generation
Sachin Tendulkar has been voted the cricketer of the generation by a 50-member jury of current and former cricketers and journalists.
Tendulkar beat strong competition from Shane Warne and Jacques Kallis to win the award, presented to mark the first generation of the existence of ESPNcricinfo, which has been online since 1993.
The jury that decided on the award included Michael Holding, Ian Chappell, Martin Crowe, Mark Taylor, Younis Khan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Barry Richards, John Wright and Jeff Dujon, among others.
Mitchell Johnson's series-defining 7 for 40 in the Ashes Test in Adelaide won the Test bowling title for 2013 in the annual ESPNcricinfo Awards, over performances from Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, James Anderson, and Johnson's own Brisbane four-for in the Ashes opener, which kicked off a scarcely believable streak in which he took 59 wickets in eight Tests at a little over 15 runs each.
Shahid Afridi won the ODI bowling award with his 7 for 12 against West Indies - a match he also dominated with the bat, making 76 off 55 balls. It was Afridi's second ESPNcricinfo Award; he won in the same category for 2009.
"I remember this game because I was not picked for the Champions Trophy, and that was my comeback and that was my first game in Georgetown," Afridi said about the award, "and [I produced an] awesome performance in batting and bowling as well, so I am very happy for this."
Indian players took the two batting prizes. Shikhar Dhawan won the Test batting award for his rollicking 187 on debut against Australia in Mohali last year. Rohit Sharma's ODI double-century in Bangalore, also against Australia, was picked as the ODI batting performance of the year.
"It is really a special award, and it was a very special performance, and it is very close to me," Rohit said about winning. "I am very happy that ESPN has recognised this performance of mine. Getting 200 every day is not easy. More than anything else it was a match-winning performance and it helped us win the series. It was a decider game, we wanted to win the game and win the series, so I am happy that it came at the right time and we won the series."
The jury for the performance awards included Mark Butcher, Sanjay Manjrekar, Daryll Cullinan, Russel Arnold, Ian Bishop, Rahul Dravid, and a number of ESPNcricinfo's senior writers.
A new category, the Debutant of the Year, voted on by ESPNcricinfo users, was won by India's Mohammed Shami, who took 17 wickets in his four Tests in 2013, and 30 ODI wickets. Shami beat the likes of Kusal Perera, Ashton Agar, Kyle Abbott, Sohaib Maqsood and Jason Holder to the title.
Also new this year, the Contribution to Cricket Award went to Tarak Sinha, head coach of the Sonnet Cricket Club in Delhi, who has been involved in the development of a remarkable number of Indian Test and first-class players, among them Aakash Chopra, Ashish Nehra and Manoj Prabhakar. Sinha, who was nominated for the award by Rahul Dravid, has coached Ranji Trophy-winning Delhi and Rajasthan teams, and was the coach of the India women's team the first time it won a Test series overseas.
ESPNcricinfo also introduced an award to acknowledge the efforts of cricketers that helped people outside the sport. Rahul Dravid won the Cricket for Good award for his mentorship of junior and paralympic athletes in India in his association with the GoSports Foundation.
South Africans AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn dominated the Statsguru Awards, which are adjudged based purely on statistical data. De Villiers won Batsman of the Year, Best Test Batsman, and Most Consistent Batsman. Steyn was the Bowler of the Year and the Best Test Bowler.
The ESPNcricinfo Awards are now in their seventh year. Past winners have included Dale Steyn, Kumar Sangakkara, Virender Sehwag and Lasith Malinga.
TO the Indian fans Tendlkar is a great batsman but to belittle Bradmans achievement really shows a lack of knowledge. Simply, it can be argued that within this generation Tendulkar has many peers with records as good as his ie Kallis, Ponting, Dravid, Samgakkara, Lara etc. However, Bradman had no peer at the time that could match his record, none that even come close. TO belittle his achievements because he only played England is short-sightedness. That's all he had and if it was so easy why wasn't every batsman knocking up a 100 average?
GOD of the cricket
Cricketer of the generation - Person being the ambassador of the game. Clean of bad ethics. Crowd puller. Inspiration for the younger generations. Achievements. Charity. Only sachin fills in all the categories. I might have missed some few points which they would used for filtration. Surprised to see why they have left out Murali who is the leading wicket taker in tests. They could have named this order Best batsmen, best bowler and all rounder for the last 20 decades. All the three names fills in the said order. Cric info could have been wiser in announcing the awards. Haddin should have been chosen for the best batting awards. Ashes in eng and Aus.
@Robert Eddings: Plz forget about the number of centuries scored in world cups. Plz count the number of runs scored in each world cup.. plz complete your research and come back..
@Leg-Breaker & Robert Eddings Tendulkar scored quite a few 90's & 80's in the WC matches like 98 v/s Pak where he destroyed the fastest bowler in the world(Shoaib akhthar & co) in SA, 97 v/s srilanka in SA &, 85 v/s Pak in Semi-final(probably the most important innings played by Sachin in WC) & few more 80's which resulted in INDIAN victoryl!!!! Sachin took more MOM in WC for winning matches than any other player in the WC history!! Sachin was the top run getter in 96 & 03 & 2nd top run getter in 2011 WC which India Won whereas Lara was poor when it came to "BIG" matches & also his record in WC matches is pathetic to say the least!! Lesser we talk about Kallis in WC matches, it's better for him as he NEVER EVER performed consistently in the WC matches...Punter played in a team which had great players in 2003 WC & 2007 WC which makes lot of difference when you compare Sachin who played with probably one of the worst bowling attacks in the world which resulted in very few losses!!
for people who keep saying Tendulkar performed under tremendous pressure, it is not their fault that warne or kallis was not born in a nation of a billion people. Who knows, they may have done better under pressure - with a billion people comes marketing dollars and the backing of these corporate giants that keep the longevity in the team even when u don't perform.
Like somebody pointed out six centuries in world cups in lost causes make for a good batsman not a great one. Kallis deserved this clearly.
Guys, stats don't tell the whole story. Yes, for example, Tendulkar has six World Cup centuries, but three were vs Namibia and Kenya, and the other three were losses (England, South Africa, Sri Lanka) in games in which everyone scored freely. In comparison, Ponting and Viv Richards and Brian Lara had world cup centuries which won games and were vs tough opposition, though Ponting has one world cup century vs a minnow team (Scotland). So stats must be examined carefully.
Lol, i Think You Forgot Afridi. Its a Great PLeasure to See that a Pakistani Player has Won an Award, But for a Second Time. Great stuff by Afridi, sometimes it seems he Doesnt Know Cricket, but another Moment, Ponting or Gayle might want some LEssons.
Those people who think Tendulkar is better then Bradman are kidding themselves. They forget that Bradman was unable to play for almost 8 years due to the war. Take an 8 year block out of Sachin's record from ages 29 to 37 and compare records. Sachin's career becomes 9307 runs at 45.62. His average is less then half of Bradman's and Bradman never got to feast on Bangladesh, Zimbabwe or New Zealand attacks.
Good as Sachin is, he is not in the same class as Bradman - but then again, nobody is. Bradman is a freak and such a statistical outlier that it is doubtful that anyone will ever match his record, which makes comparisons with him a bit pointless. I agree with those who nominate Kallis. His batting record compares with Sachin's and his bowling is world class in it's own right.
wellrounded87, I have clearly explained the unique problem Tendulkar had to go through in his career. No other batsmen had to go to bat everytime with the pressure that Tendulkar had. His fans wanted nothing short of a century from him every time. Despite that the man was amazingly consistent for 24 years. Forget the pressure, now if Bradman had to play all formats of the game and had to face so much different opposition in so many different venues, how much do you think he would have averaged? Let me tell you, whatever Brad Haddin averages. Because like Haddin and many other Aussies before him, Bradman was an England bully. Look at what Haddin averages against other opposition and you will know how poor he was. Perhaps Bradman may have been a little better but not by much. No one would know but I suspect he would not have averaged more than 50. Since Oz still continue to play more tests against Eng, perhaps he would have boosted his avg to 50.