Sachin Tendulkar has pipped Brian Lara as Shane Warne's greatest cricketer.
Warne, who released the last ten names of his 50 greatest cricketers, said it
was a "close call" to choose between Tendulkar and Lara, but rates the
Indian ahead because of his 'mental toughness'.
"I place him (Tendulkar) very slightly ahead of Lara because
I found him slightly tougher mentally. It is such a close call," Warne
writes in the 'The Times'.
Strangely, no Australian features in Warne's top three-- Sachin
Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Curtly Ambrose.
While Australians Allan Border and Glenn McGrath
are ranked fourth and fifth respectively, Wasim Akram, Muttiah Muralitharan,
Ricky Ponting, Mark Taylor and Ian Healy make the rest of the
top 10 in that order.
For Warne, Tendulkar remained an unsolved riddle throughout
his playing career, and even admitted once that the Indian gives him nightmares.
"You have to watch India in India truly to appreciate
the pressure that Sachin Tendulkar is under every time he bats. Outside grounds,
people wait until he goes in before paying to enter. They seem to want a wicket
to fall even though it is their own side that will suffer.
"This is cricket as Sachin has known it since the age
of 16. He grew up under incredible weight of expectation and never buckled once
not under poor umpiring decisions or anything else," Warne said.
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