New Delhi: Debate on who is the greatest? Sachin Tendulkar or Virat Kohli – will never be silenced. This question has been asked by many former cricketers, and recently, former India captain Sourav Ganguly found himself in the middle of it.In terms of most international runs, Tendulkar leads with 34,357, while Kohli is in the top three with over 28,000 runs. Kohli has already surpassed Tendulkar’s record for most ODI centuries, with 53 to his name, compared to Tendulkar’s 49 in his illustrious career.
Tendulkar has 51 centuries in Tests while Kohli has 30. Tendulkar has scored 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 endless debate – and we want to come to a conclusion on it. Virat or Sachin?“Don’t ask me, I’m great. Dunno is great and I’m the happiest. Dunno is from India. Dunno has won so many matches for India. You can’t even imagine why. When you play, you’ll find out.” It’s hard. [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.“Sachin Tendulkar is a great player, I have seen from him, I am so friendly with him, when I have spent two and a half days with him, I used to come home and always say that he will not want to leave me.” So sometimes my wife used to ask that in the cue game, there is up and down. I don’t say man, people will say or the other end is such a great player and the other end is an average player, so I never want my game to come down. [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.
