Sachin lucky he didn't face West Indies pace greats: Imran Khan

Sachin lucky he didn't face West Indies pace greats: Imran Khan
Dec 7, 2013

NEW DELHI:

Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan on Saturday said recently-retired Indian batting icon Sachin Tendulkar was lucky to have never faced the ferocious West Indies pace attack of '70 and '80s.

While delivering a lecture on leadership at an All India Management Association function here, Imran said facing the likes of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall and Colin Croft was a huge task. In fact, Imran pointed out that some fine talent was forced to be on the bench because the frontliners were irreplaceable.

"There was Sylvester Clark, who used to be on the bench mostly but on a rebel tour of South Africa, he demolished the opposition single-handedly," Imran said. "My friend, the poor guy, Sunny Gavaskar bore the brunt of the West Indian fast-bowling attack. Sachin is very lucky that he didn't face them," he added.

Tendulkar retired recently after playing international cricket for nearly a quarter of century, notching up most of the batting records to be rated as the greatest of modern era.
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very very true.  had sachin coincided with that time no fifty tons for sure

and we forget that Allan Donald and the Kiwi Bond were real threats during in their time as well...also the Oz greats..lille, thompson etc.

no sir..sachin..and to a lesser extent Lara.. was born at the right time

Tendulkar faced the best of his time and I suspect he would have done equally well against the West Indies.

He did not show a real weakness against pace and some of his best, if not his best, tons came against the Aussies in Australia.

har har ha!  well how well did sachin do against the pace we did have....

I remember him floundering in the west indies against tests like Mervyn Dillon

Iman is a real judge, valid!

a dose of Marshall would have exposed the core of the man.  Sachin never got tested by any likes.

McGrath who... ::confused::

Marshall..Ambrose..Garner fuh real

I never really saw Sachin struggle against pace but happy to agree to differ.

I have seen Lara being shaken up like any other batsmen, despite his vast abilities.

We will never know.

It would have been similar to facing 4 Mitchell Johnsons last night ..

Laaawwwdddd !

Great players of that time faced them and  succeeded.

Centuries were scored against the West Indies so I am not sure why a West Indies pace attack would have stumped Tendulkar!

It would have been challenging but good and great players, especially, rise to the challenge.

In those days 6 bouncers were allowed and combined with lethal pace of tyhe windies quicks , I very much doubt that Tendulkar would have had the same impact

Guys steady.

Batsmen made centuries against the Windies in their pomp, ask Gavaskar.

He was the, then, top scorer in test Cricket with the most centuries. He scored 13 of his 32 centuries against the West indies, more than any country, he only scored 4 against England in 11 more tests. Vishwanath and Vengsarkar had a good century strike rate against the West indies as well.

The West Indies bowlers of the 70s and 80s were brilliantly good but not impregnable to all players.