Dubai: Gulf News readers displayed a good sense of cricket history in the poll to choose their greatest batsman of all times.
While it was not much of a surprise that Sachin Tendulkar polled the maximum votes, the late Sir Don Bradman and West Indian legend Viv Richards occupied the second and fourth positions, respectively — while the current batting sensation Virat Kohli is in third.
Tendulkar garnered 39 per cent of the votes, winning 2,076 votes from out of the total 4,948 votes for the poll. The Indian batting maestro, who retired from international cricket on November 16, 2013 after playing his 200th Test match at the Wankhede Stadium against West Indies, had shattered almost all world batting records.
Kohli, who in the last 18 months has converted six of his nine centuries into double centuries and is on a record-breaking spree, could poll only 781 votes for 15 per cent of the votes. Though many have predicted that Kohli may go on to shatter all batting records set by Tendulkar, he finished third.
‘The Don’ of Australia, who through 1930s and ‘40s set many highs in world cricket through his consistency and hung up his boots with an average of 99.94 in Tests, clinched the second slot with 843 votes and 16 per cent of the votes.
Richards, hailed as the most destructive batsman of modern times, finished fourth with 679 votes for 13 per cent of the votes. Richards’ compatriot Brian Lara, regarded as the most graceful left-handed batsman ever, finished fifth with 429 votes for eight per cent of the votes.
Rest of the choices: Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara, Australia’s Ricky Ponting, South Africa’s Jacques Kallis and India’s Sunil Gavaskar could poll only two per cent of the votes.
Sangakkara topped in the number of votes among them with 214 votes. Ponting pipped Kallis by one vote to bag 104 votes to Kallis’ 103 votes. Gavaskar won 101 votes while England’s Jack Hobbs finished last with just 46 votes and just one per cent of the polled votes.
