Chanderpaul just misses out on the 10,000 Test runs club

Afridi all-time best All-Rounder Matches over 350, wickets over 350, runs over 7000 with strike rate around 115 with more than 300 sixes already.. might finish with more than 400 wickets and around 8000 ODI runs with that 115-116 strike rate with around 350 sixes.. amazing stuff.. not even in sweetest of sweet dreams, a cricket can think of this kind of all round record.. take a bow afridi.. and think SIR G. SOBBERS could u do this? just yesterday after a come back in ODIs, he got one of the best bowling performance in ODI all time takeing 7/12 after scoring characteristics 76 off just 55 balls with 5 gigantic sixes.. woooooooow.........

Dear pd, Absolutely right. Bingo. U have hit the nail on the head. Cook has very loooooong way to go. Until 2-3 yrs back, Ponting was the main contender of breaking SRT's test record of runs & 100s.. now kallis has chance since Ponting is gone. but Cook is too young in compare to them.. only factor that goes Cook's way is the number of test matches he (as ENGLAND plays that much test matches every year) plays every year. So if everything goes well, and he can maintain the tempo (maintaining career average around 50 for over 16-17 yrs) with ever changing techniques adopted by the bowlers all over the world for the next 10 yrs or so, he can definitely reach there and break 16000 to overtake sachin and also 52-53 number of 100s to go past him in 100s. I agree with you that if a batsman like Alaistair Cook (who started his test career at the age of 21), the number of test matches ENGLAND plays each year, Cook has played 93 Tests in less than 7 and a half years.(Around 12-13 Tests/year).. even if he plays for another 9 to 10 years till the age of 37-38 (he is currently 28), then @ this rate of matches played per year, he would most likely play another at least 110 tests.. i.e. he will play more than 200 tests by the end of 2022 (assuming he play till around 38 yrs).. currently he is averaging 49.. at that rate in 200+ tests he will go past 16000 test runs comfortably.. in around 350 test innings.. so no way one can rest assured that Sachin’s close to 16000 test runs will be untouchable by any means although the term around 16000 test runs sounds gigantic. But having said that, one has to remain fit n make sure the longevity with high class performance consistency over decades like Sachin to match or overtake him.. Matches : 200+ Innings : ~350 Not Outs : ~24-25 Runs : 16000+ Avg : ~50 (currently 48.95) Balls Faced: 33000+ (in case of Cook’s Current Test career Batting S/Rate ~47-48) 100′s : 52 or more (he’s currently got 25 test centuries under his belt) But, mind it sachin also got close to 18500 ODI runs in 463 matches over 23 yrs which even half no of matches and 1/3 runs might not be played / scored by cook by end of his ODI career coz they stress on tests (12-14 tests each yr on average).. So overall SACHIN is TRUE CHAMPION but his TEST runs & 100s are not untouchable or unbreakable but very hard to reach there tough. Playing 23-24 yrs (i.e. almost 2 and a half decades) with that consistency is next to dream for any cricketer.

Dear Brett McKay, I agree with you that if a batsman like Alaistair Cook (who started his test career at the age of 21), the number of test matches ENGLAND plays each year, Cook has played 93 Tests in less than 7 and a half years.(Around 12-13 Tests/year).. even if he plays for another 9 to 10 years till the age of 37-38 (he is currently 28), then @ this rate of matches played per year, he would most likely play another 110-115 tests.. i.e. he will play more than 200 tests by the end of 2022 (assuming he play till around 38 yrs).. currently he is averaging 49.. at that rate in 200+ tests he will go past 16000 test runs comfortably.. in around 350 test innings.. so no way one can rest assured that Sachin's close to 16000 test runs will be untouchable by any means although the term around 16000 test runs sounds gigantic. But having said that, one has to remain fit n make sure the longevity with high class performance consistency over decades like Sachin to match or overtake him.. Matches : 200+ Innings : ~350 N/O : 25 Runs : 16000+ Avg : ~50 Balls Faced: ~33500 (in case of Cook's Current Test career Batting S/Rate ~ 48) 100's : 52 or more (he's currently got 25 test centuries under his belt) But, mind it sachin also got close to 18500 ODI runs in 463 matches which even half no of matches and 1/3 runs might not be played by cook by end of his ODI career coz they stress on tests (12-14 tests each yr on average).. So overall SACHIN is TRUE CHAMPION but his TEST runs & 100s are not untouchable or unbreakable but very hard to reach there tough.

It would be very early to say whether Cook can go past Tendulkar or not coz while chasing a record like Tendulkar's one form slump would be enough to lose a chance of doing that. Till 2 years back everyone used to say that Tendulkar will set up new records only to be broken by Ponting. Till the start of 2010 that looked a possibility with Ponting who is a year & 8 months younger than Tendulkar was just four tons short of Tendulkar. But a loss of form has ensured that it will not happen. In fact Kallis who has said that he wants to play till the next World Cup can break Tendulkar's test records safely assuming that he will continue playing test cricket till 2015. This is also bcoz Kallis is one player who has never had long periods of form loss unlike Tendulkar in the mid 2000's & Ponting. Cook still has a long way to go mate. He is young now. It would be interesting to see how he scores as his age advances coz smart changes in batting techniques with advancing age is the most crucial factor if one wants to break records which require physical endurance

Smith's problem is that his body seems to be breaking down so I don't know that he has the additional 85 or so tests he needs to get there left in him. But yeah, he was the 3rd youngest to 6184 runs after the other 2. It does kind of make the point though. Cook and Smith are excellent rather than great players who started early but play for teams who play a lot of tests. So it may not need a player as good as Tendulkar to break the record so long as they are durable enough to play 180 to 200 tests.

Given he's still only 31, I'd rate Graeme Smith a reasonable chance too, but I agree Cook seems the best placed (age wise) to give 15,000 Test runs a shake. I'd like to see Chanderpaul get the 14 runs he needs to crack 10 grand during the Windies second innings. It doesn't always happen, but he deserves to reach that milestone in front of a home crowd. If not he'll reach the target against England. Just to put into perspective how long guys like Chanderpaul and Ponting have been around, I recently saw one of those 'world series classics' during one of the breaks in play. I think it was from the 96/97 season. Ponting still had that goatee he used to sport in his early days. The Windies featured players like Walsh, Ambrose, Hooper, Lara and Adams. Chanderpaul came on to bowl a few leggies and ended up getting both the Waugh brothers out.

Sure, I have no doubt that whoever does it will be a very special player. On Tendulkar, you may well be right, and that something special was seen in him, but it might also have been a case of trying anything to see what works. India were very up and down in the mid-late 80s when Tendulkar emerged (!!), so it could've just as easily have been out of desperation..

Brett, how astute a selector would you have to be to know that after seeing tendulkar score a first class hundred on debut age 14 that he would be something special. It's probably going to be that type of player that will break it. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.

RD, it's a pretty reasonable nit-pick!!

Sailo, that's very true, though I'd love to meet the selector astute enough to know that an 18/19/20yo batsman is destined to score upwards of 16,000 Test runs!!

Jason, in that case, then Cook has 'overtaken' Tendulkar, if you will. During the Ashes series of 2010/11, I included in a column on Cook: "Cook has become the second fastest player to 5000 Test runs, only bettered by some bloke named Tendulkar. Given Cook only just turned 26 on Christmas Day, he could well reach some dizzy heights by the time he’s done." http://www.theroar.com.au/2011/01/06/alistair-cook-bats-into-history/ Injury and form aside, you'd have to think he would be a chance..

Nobody has scored more runs than Alaistair Cook has at his current age - even Tendulkar was a 3 months older than Cook when he scored his 6184th test run (in one more Test too by the way). Smith is the only other to score as many runs before their 28th (or even 29th) birthdays. Cook is a real chance at getting close to the aggregate (but not the 100s I'd say) subject to his inevitable long term captaincy not affecting his batting too much.

David - at the risk of nitpicking and editing of your article: "The West Indian “Rock of Gibraltar” was trapped in front by Australian paceman Mitchell Starc for 68, taking him to a career-high 9986." - me thinkst that every innings a cricketer plays, ducks and all, takes every player to a "career high".

Brett, one would think that if a certain player was to break Tendulkars record they would have to be a very special player therefore making it impossible for England or Australia not to pick them at 18,19 or 20. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.

The cricket statistician Charles Davis has done just that. He can pretty accurately estimate career strike rates (and therefore balls faced). Check out his webstite on this: http://www.sportstats.com.au/hotscore.html For the record, the Don would have faced about 11,460 balls in his test career - about the same as Mike Hussey.

It's interesting how the statistical cricket world has changed regards minutes and balls faced. I remember a dasher like K J Hughes setting a record for the slowest 100 by and Aussie 78/79, Around 330 or more minutes I think. He couldn't resist two sixes so he was clearly taking the mickey. AB could certainly let the old clock tick by. Don't know who holds the record now but Boonie must have given it a shake. I waited all day for him to get 100 at the SCG after going in early against India I think and the bugger finished on 89 with about 20 in the last session! Some other highlights include Muddy Nasar 57 in a day on way to slowest 100 1977 ish - he may have stretched his innings to over 500 mins I think, contributing to the subsequent crowd riot! Paul Hibbert's boundaryless even 100, also in 1977 took 328 minutes, which is pretty slick considering. Boycs I can barely write about. A 77 in 78/79 took over 7 hrs! Possibly my favourite is normally sedated Chris Tavare scoring a dashing 89 in 3 hours in Australia's in the Melbourne thriller 82/83 And good old patient Chanders has about the fifth fastest test century, in balls, not sure about the mins but it must have been around 80 or 90 mins.

All the scorecards I've ever seen recorded all deliveries against the bowler, so I would have thought it would be possible (albeit quite tedious) to reconstruct those old games. Given the primacy of Test cricket, have they really destroyed all the records or are they sitting on shelves somewhere?

Bushy, that's a fair point, and given that Tendulkar and Chanderpaul have obviously played less than 10 Tests per year over their careers (injuries notwithstanding), it would be a fair assumption that this player would be from England, Australia, or South Africa...

Brett, I agree with you, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that it will be surpassed. It is yet another example of why Tenduolkar is simply the best of his generation (or even the generations either side of him) as opposed to the best ever (Bradman). I guess, however, one thing that does have to be taken into consideration is that less and less Test cricket will be played over the next few years (and probably forever - unlikely to swing back the other way). Even if you have faith that England, South Africa and Australia will stay true and continue to play ten (10) plus Tests a year, those three (3) countries, Australia and England especially, are not really known for picking twenty (20) year olds in Test Cricket that often.

Thanks to The Roar, I have no productivity. Another great set of articles today..... One reason it may never be broken is the rise of T20 franchise/club cricket. If the lucrative T20 circuit continues to expand, it may be increasingly unlikely for a player to make themselves available to play enough internationals to have a go at breaking that record. I can easily see a time coming when the elite players will pick and choose which international tours they'll take part in, and rule themselves out of the rest so they can make some T20 money.