Focus on veterans in Motera clash
One of either Sachin Tendulkar or Ricky Ponting will play his last World Cup game in Ahmedabad
Liam Brickhill
25-Feb-2013
One of either Sachin Tendulkar or Ricky Ponting will play his last World Cup game in Ahmedabad. There's plenty at stake for both: Tendulkar has his sights on a 100th international hundred, an achievement that would be 'Bradmanesque' in its scale, writes Michael Atherton in The Australian.
It has become a cliche to compare Tendulkar to Bradman ever since the Don did so. Is one better than the other? Well who, other than the sage, John Woodcock, knows and, frankly, who cares? But should Tendulkar score a hundred tonight in the World Cup quarter-final with Australia, it can be said without question that his achievement would be Bradmanesque. Bradman averaged a third more than his best contemporaries, a differential that, regardless of the changing nature of the game and the improvement in standards, marks him out as one of the greatest sportsmen to have lived.
Ponting's situation is a world away from Tendulkar's, for he is fighting to keep his international playing career alive, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Blow away the smoke and the situation becomes clear. Ponting is 36 years old, has been struggling for runs all season and his team has been losing. It is not and has never been a reassuring combination. Meanwhile, his proposed successor looks more like the next leader with every passing week. Meanwhile, the next generation of batsmen have been scoring heavily, not least in the recent shield final.
Liam Brickhill is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town