Tendulkar & Kumar Sangakkara failed to score big at the start of their career

Bit deceptive. Tendy was about 16 or 17 when he made the India ODI team in 1989. He batted 5 and 6, too low down the order to make tons. In 1994 he started opening, started making the most of fielding restrictions (and those full 50 overs) and so hit his first ton. He couldnt have been more than 20 or 21 years old.

Sanga is a more conventional late bloomer.

I also tend to think the age that tendulker started his career sways the figures a bit, and while it might have took him 79 ODI's to make his first 100, he was still only around 20 and had a full career in front of him.

That's something that others don't have and while they can't be expected to hit the ground running, I think people should expect more progress in a shorter space if time than we're seeing.

Also you can't discount the fact that it was the quality of Tendulkar that made him flourish as a batman at a time when bowling standards in world cricket were leaps and bounds ahead of today's cricket. He made tons against bowlers like Shane warne, Mcgrath, Walsh,Ambrose,Donald,Pollock,Wasim,Waqar,Saqlain,Shoaib,Lee,Murali etc. Comparitively Kohli and co have had it easy.

The quality of the opposition does make a difference when your judging a player and there's no getting away from the fact that tendulkar faxed much tougher opposition than most and shone brightly.

If some of the players now faced what he did, the west Indies would have had to give the game up long ago.