The omission of Sachin Tendulkar from a list of rankings has triggered controversy in the cricket circle. The ICC had employed statistician David Kendix for coming up with a system that quantified performances. But now, it has found itself in the midst of a media storm.

But ICC has to make two things clear. First, these rankings are not new, but are at least five years old. Why did ICC brought it out at this time when Matthew Hayden, who is in the Top 20, decided to quit from cricket. The timing of this ranking seems suspicious. And another question is regarding the merit. The rankings do not aim to assess a player’s overall career. It makes it

clear that the rankings do not say that Hayden’s presence in the Top 20 mean he is a better player than Tendulkar. Then what is the meaning of these rankings.

The ICC rankings just give an indication of how players peaked during their careers. But it fails to give a full picture of those players’ level of consistency or longevity in the game. Even ICC authorities admit that.

The rankings just are a measurement of the peaks in a player’s career. ICC explains that it does not mean he should necessarily be considered better than a player who hovered around the 850-point mark for his entire career. When the likes of Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Wally Hammond and Greg Chappell do not make the cut, all it means is that they did not have as purple a patch as those in the top 20.

ICC themselves put it that the ‘best-ever ratings’ are effectively snapshots of greatness. While judging a player’s greatness over his career, his entire graph will have to be looked at.

If Tendulkar fails to figure out in the Top 20, it’s doesn’t mean that he is a bad player. After all no one can take away 28,851 international runs and 83 centuries.

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Tags : Cricket, ICC, ranking, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Matthew Hayden, century, runs, Wally Hammond, Greg Chappell

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