NEW DELHI: The debate over who is the greatest – Sachin Tendulkar or Virat Kohli – will never be silenced. The question has been asked of many former cricketers, and recently, former India captain Sourav Ganguly found himself in the middle of it.In terms of most international runs, Tendulkar holds the top spot with 34,357, while Kohli is among the top three with over 28,000 runs under his belt. Kohli has already surpassed Tendulkar’s record for the most ODI centuries, with 53 to his name, compared to Tendulkar’s 49 in his illustrious career.
In Tests, Tendulkar has 51 centuries, while Kohli has 30. Tendulkar amassed 15,921 runs in Tests, while Kohli has scored 9,230 runs.During the event, Ganguly was asked by a host: “Tell me, there is a debate – an unending debate – and we want to reach a closure on it. Virat or Sachin?“Ye mat poochiye mere ho great dono bahut acche hain aur main sabse khush hoon. Dono India ke hai, dono India ke liye itne match jitaaye hain. Aap aap soch bhi nahi sakte. Kyunki jab aap khelte ho na to aapko pata chalta hai ki itne run banana, itne centuries banana kitna mushkil hai. [Don’t ask me that. Both are great, both are very good, and I am happiest that both are from India. They have won so many matches for India. You cannot even imagine, because when you play, you realise how difficult it is to score so many runs and so many centuries]” Ganguly said during a show on TV9.“Sachin Tendulkar bahut bade player hai. Main unke paas se dekha hoon, main unke saath itna khela hoon. Main jab main unke saath dhai sau one day open kar chuka hoon to main ghar mein aakar hamesha bolta tha ki yaar mujhe na meri game neeche jaani nahi chahiye. To kabhi kabhi meri wife poochti thi kyu game mein to upar neeche hota hai. Maine kaha nahi yaar log bolenge ya doosre end par itna bada player hai aur doosri taraf 1 average player hai to main kabhi nahi chahta hoon ki mera game neeche aaye [Sachin Tendulkar is a very great player. I have seen him from close quarters, I have played so much with him. When I had opened around 250 ODIs with him, I would always come home and say that my game should not go down. Sometimes my wife would ask why, since form goes up and down. I would say no — people will say that at one end there is such a great player and at the other end there is an average player. So I never wanted my game to dip]”, he said.“[Aur main 1 cheez life mein believe karta hoon ki aap acche logon ke saath kheloge na jo aapse behtareen player hain, jo aapse stronger player hai, aapka game bhi improve hota hai kyunki aapka level bhi wo ban jaata hai. Isliye mere hisaab se Virat Kohli aur Sachin Tendulkar ke beech comparison hona nahi chahiye. Dono Bharat ke hain. But main Sachin ko bahut paas se dekha hoon aur bahut bade player hai wo. [One thing I believe in life is that when you play with good people, players who are better and stronger than you, your game also improves because your level rises to theirs. So in my opinion, there should not be a comparison between Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar. Both belong to India. But I have seen Sachin very closely, and he is a very great player]” Ganguly said.
