'This should stop speculations about his class'

Namaste England

Shane Warne's list of his top 10 players in Saturday morning edition of the London Times had cricket journos - and especially those from India - scurrying for their cell phones to get reactions, and laptops to file special stories.

Everybody knew that Sachin Tendulkar would feature very high in the recently-retired leg-spinner's merit list which has had cricket aficionados debating for a week on the whys and wherefores of his choices, but many believed that Tendulkar may have ceded ground to Lara, McGrath, Muralitharan or Akram. Instead, Warne put the master from Mumbai at the helm.

"This is from one legend to another,'' said former India captain Ravi Shastri who features at number 42 (there are six Indians in Warne's 50), "and should stop all speculation about Tendulkar's class."

Shastri believes that it is a singular honour that an Indian has been rated so highly by arguably the game's best spinner. "These guys have had some tough battles in the middle, so Warne obviously knows what he is talking about, unlike so many of his new critics." Kapil Dev, whose trenchant views about Tendulkar's inability to 'win matches' has made headlines back home, may have something to say about this.

Meanwhile reactions from cricket fans who have arrived in drives to Leeds were no less laudatory. "We always knew Sachin was the best," said Gautam Patel, "and it is good that Warne has said this publicly."

The London Times had served up an ace in the highly competitive newspaper business here, sparking off a race to interview Tendulkar. But while the Times has announced a 'life and times' conversation with the star batsman on Monday, the Daily Mail's expert, former England captain Nasser Hussian, scooped an exclusive on Saturday itself.

Frankly, it is a fairly prosaic interview, save one interesting sequence which reveals Tendulkar's self assurance about his cricket. It goes:

Nasser: I have to ask about England (captained by Hussain) in Bangalore 2001-02 with Ashley Giles bowling over the wicket, trying to stop you scoring and Andrew Flintoff bowling round the wicket. Were you thinking "This just isn't cricket?"

Sachin: I was prepared for it. In the first match I scored 88, in the second I made a hundred and in the third one I got our for 90, so where was the problem? I just thought to myself, "If you are going to test my patience, I will test yours too.''

Nasser: Who do you think won then?

Sachin: Well, I scored almost 3000 runs…you tell me?

Nasser: I think I've lost that argument.

Sachin Special on Sunday?
Nevertheless, there is one argument that Tendulkar still has to win on this tour. Barring a hundred against England Lions, he has failed to get into three figures yet, in either Tests or one-dayers, which is unusual for him. After all, he has 36 Test centuries and 41 in limited overs cricket.

That said, it must be acknowledged that Tendulkar has got some very rough decisions on this tour, twice being declared out in the 90s when television replays confirmed that the umpires were way off the mark. Not one to remonstrate, he has taken the adverse decisions in his stride, and moved on to the next innings.

Will a 'Big One' come at Headingley was the Big Q one everybody's lips at nets on Saturday afternoon. Considered to be the most difficult ground to bat on in England, this has nevertheless been home to some of the greatest batsmen England have produced - Len Hutton, Geoff Boycott and Michael Vaughan to capture three eras spread over 70s years - and surely also has a special place in Tendulkar's heart.

He was the first ever overseas player to play for Yorkshire in 1994, the county amending its more-than-a-century-old policy to accommodate cricket's most exciting talent. He did not have a particularly successful season then, but in 2002 made a memorable 194.

His team will be hoping that Tendulkar can come up with a Sunday Special to keep India in the hunt for a series victory.

Sachin or Beckham?
And finally, the obsessed scribe asked me if Tendulkar and Beckham weren't too of a kind. "Megastars who cannot even walk the streets of their country for fear of being mobbed."

Of Tendulkar, I told him that he was also amongst the game's greatest players. Of Beckham, "read my lips."