Little Master shows his class

Whatever the final outcome of the current test between India and Australia in Mohali, it will be one that lives long in the memory of Indian cricket fans.

India are well placed to win, with Australia five wickets down in the final innings and still requiring 375 for victory going into the final day, but don't expect the Aussies to simply accept defeat.

Even if Sachin Tendulkar would want to focus on the victory of his team, this match will inevitably be remembered for the moment the ‘Little Master’ passed Brian Lara’s record to become the most prolific test batsman in test cricket of all time.

With Ricky Ponting among the first to congratulate Tendulkar as he reached the landmark, you sensed it was one of those rare moments when the whole of cricket unites to celebrate a singular talent.

Tendulkar’s genius and talent was glaringly obvious from a ridiculously young age – at the age of just 14 he and another future India test batsmen Vinod Kambli reduced a young bowler to tears as they put on a then world record 664 partnership in a school game and he also made his first test hundred at the age of just 17.

But having a gift is one thing, it is the ability to deliver quality performances over a sustained period of time at the highest level that marks out the greatest sportsmen and women.

Being a child prodigy did not make it easy for Tendulkar, trying to and gage the scale of his popularity and the pressure on his shoulders is almost impossible but it is fair to say he has repeatedly gone out to bat with a greater weight of expectation than any other cricketer of any generation.

Yet time and time again he has produced the goods - 152 tests and 417 one-day internationals have yielded more than 28,000 runs at international level and an astonishing 81 centuries.

This level of proficiency may suggest a careful accumulator of runs with a single-minded approach but anyone who has watched the Little Master over the years would accept that he is a delight to watch, a batsman who plays his shots and executes them with a rare panache.

Tendulkar’s longevity and insatiable appetite for runs has made me think about the true meaning of sporting greatness.

In sport we get those with unrivalled genius who touch the highest peaks but only for a brief time.

This is most obvious in football, where likes of Diego Maradona, George Best and Paul Gascoigne provided some of the finest moments ever seen on a football field but their careers are almost as much tales of unfulfilled promise as they are of success.

Perhaps even more rare are those such as Pele, Bobby Moore, or – bringing us back to cricket – Tendulkar himself.

They too are capable of moments of rare brilliance but between these flashes of talent their level of performance is relentless to the point when it almost becomes boring.

Yes, maybe the Maradonas of this world are more exciting because we never know what we are going to get but surely if we are to consider the true sense of sporting ‘greatness’, it should be those who deliver brilliance on the most prolific basis.

Whatever you’re view on this few can argue that the Little Master will go down as one of the game’s all time greats.