Sachin Tendulkar’s hundred international hundreds may never be bettered like Don Bradman’s Test average

Sachin Tendulkar reached his 100th international hundred on March 16, 2012. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at how significant this number is, and why the number will, in all likelihood, will remain elusive for generations of cricketers to come.

Sachin Tendulkar – First man to register hundred international hundreds © AFP

Sachin Tendulkar reached his 100th international hundred on March 16, 2012. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at how significant this number is, and why the number will, in all likelihood, will remain elusive for generations of cricketers to come.

History was rewritten as Sachin Tendulkar clipped Shakib Al Hasan to square-leg and ran through for a single. He became the first man to register a hundred international hundreds. A new page was turned over in the annals of the sport as yet another landmark — one that may never be emulated in future — was achieved.
 
But exactly how great is Tendulkar’s record when compared to the other records in the history of the sport? Let us dig deep into the magnitude of Tendulkar’s achievement.
 
How long would it take some of the other batsmen to reach that incredible mark? Let us have a look at the hypothesis:
 

As is evident, Tendulkar is head-and-shoulders above the rest of the batsmen on the list. Not only has he started playing at an age younger than most have and has continued playing up to an age older than most have, he has also scored a hundred every 85 days. The number is phenomenal. Ricky Ponting follows him scoring hundred every 92 days, the duration of his career is nowhere close to what Tendulkar has.
 
To emulate Tendulkar’s feat, Ponting should have gone on to play till the age of 45, and Jacques Kallis needs to play on till the age of 48. None of the others are below the 50-mark, and some others need to play above the age of 60, and in the case of a few others, more than 70.
 

 
Given that a lot more matches are played these days, and given the fact that the general batting average and rate of scoring hundreds has gone up significantly, the targets should have been achievable for some of the current crop.
 
However, if we look at the numbers, it is evident other than Kallis, the only others who have a chance to reach the mark are AB de Villiers and Alastair Cook. Cook is the best bet, but even he has to play on till the age of 45, assuming Tendulkar does not score any more hundreds. Like the previous table, there are players who need to play past an age of 50, 60, 70, and even 80 to emulate Tendulkar.
 
All in all, it can be safely concluded that Tendulkar’s record is as safe as Muttiah Muralitharan’s tally of 1,347 international wickets, or Mark Boucher’s record of 1,000 international dismissals – or even the grandest of all world records – Don Bradman’s career average of 99.94.
 
(Abhishek Mukherjee is a cricket historian and Senior Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He generally looks upon life as a journey involving two components – cricket and literature – though not as disjoint elements. A passionate follower of the history of the sport with an insatiable appetite for trivia and anecdotes, he has also a steady love affair with the incredible assortment of numbers that cricket has to offer. He also thinks he can bowl decent leg-breaks in street cricket, and blogs at http://ovshake.blogspot.in. He can be followed on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ovshake and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ovshake42.)

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