Bradman is the greatest, Sachin comes only second: Waugh

Amit Kumar Das
Abu Dhabi, Mar 10 (PTI) Sachin Tendulkar can come only
second behind legendary Don Bradman in the list of all-time
greatest cricketers, feels former Australia captain Steve
Waugh.
"Don Bradman is the greatest, there is no debate. Don is
the number one and then come the rest. And among the rest,
Tendulkar probably is as good as anyone. So legitimately he
may be the second best cricketer to have played the game,"
Waugh said.
"But then people will say the same for Gary Sobers and W
G Grace too. So its difficult to say," added Waugh, who is
here as a member of the Laureus Sports Academy.
Waugh also said it was dangerous to see Test cricket
losing out quality fast bowlers to Twenty20 format.
"It is dangerous for Test cricket that we are losing the
quicks. It is a Twenty20 influence. Fast bowlers definitely
have a lot of stress and doing this is very demanding.
"I think they realise that they have few years of cricket
in them. They get three times more money by bowling one-tenth
overs in T20. So we had (Andrew) Flintoff, Brett (Lee) and
(Shane) Bond deciding not to play Test which is a shame," he
said.
Two-time World Cup winning captain Waugh said India and
Australia will start the favourites in the ODI World Cup next
year, which will be held in Indian sub-continent.
"Australia have very good record. India is also very hard
to beat in India. So they will be the favourites.
"Then there is also New Zealand. I think, there are
probably five teams capable of winning the World Cup but India
and Australia will be the favourites," he said.
Asked whether Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men were capable of
retaining their number one Test team tag for long, Waugh said:
"I don't think anyone will hold the number one ranking (for
long) because we have three formats of the game.
"With niggling injuries and so many tours, it is very
difficult to be consistent. May be they can hold on to Test
ranking but it is very difficult to dominate all the formats
of the game."
Waugh also has apprehension about the Decision Referral
System and thinks still there is place for improvement.
"I'm at times very confused about it. I was initially
against it but later I read about it and saw decisions going
right but for the last 12 months some of the decisions didn't
seem right, which showed the technology is not completely
full-proof yet," he said.
"The technology have to be better than what it is now or
may be it could go back to the umpires. They could ask for 2-3
referrals rather than the players.
"But then some will argue that we don't have enough good
umpires to ask for a referral all times. So we have to get the
umpires to the standard of Simon Taufel, who is very
confident," Waugh said.
Another incident which has grabbed the attention of Waugh
is the rise of Afghanistan who has qualified for this year's
Twenty20 World Cup to be held in the West Indies.
"It is a great sporting story. It is a potential movie.
It is a fairy tale, the story of the year. Players learning
cricket in the refugee camps and doing so well. I think with
the T20 World Cup coming up, this will be one of the future
stories of the event," he said. PTI ATK DB