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Tendulkar, or Jayasuriya?

Anant Gaundalkar

Following a superb run with the bat towards season-end, Sachin Tendulkar made it to the top of both the Wisden and Coopers & Lybrand international ratings.

There is one other prestigious rating left -- the Ceat International Cricketer of the Year rankings, now into its third year (previous winners being Brian Lara and Venkatesh Prasad). And here we come across a piquant situation.

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of Tendulkar's showdown with Sanath Jayasuriya, a quick look at how the ratings operate:

The performance of all the players in the world, during the 12-month period from May 9, 1997 end-April 1998, are evaluated, and points awarded on the following lines:

Batting:
50 runs	=1 point
Every 25 runs thereafter	=1 point
Century	=3 bonus points
Double Century and so on	=6 bonus points

Bowling:
2 wickets	=1 point
Every wicket thereafter	=1 point
Five wickets in an innings	=3 bonus points
Ten wickets in a match	=6 bonus points
Wicket keeping: 2 dismissals	=1 point
Every dismissal thereafter	=1 point
Fielding: Every catch	=1 point

Fielding and wicket-keeping : Every 5 catches/stumpings in an innings ..
= 3 bonus points

As per this method, Sachin Tendulkar secures 114 points from his performance in eight Tests and 38 ODIs in the time span specified. Sanath Jayasuriya, for his part, tops the table with 122 points from eleven Tests and 29 ODIs.

And that brings in a clause of the Ceat rankings that was not needed in the previous years. Namely, the clause that if the difference in points between the top players at the end of the season is less than ten -- as is the case here -- then the judges (Clive Lloyd of the West Indies, Ian Chappell of Australia and Sunil Gavaskar of India) will decide the eventual winner, taking into consideration the overall display of the respective players.

So that is the situation -- Jayasuriya and Tendulkar, at season's end, awaiting word from the judges about which of the two will be crowned International Cricketer of the Year...

As of now, it seems anyone's guess how the vote will go -- though given Tendulkar's strong finish at the end of the season, the buzz in informed circles is that the Indian superbat will add the Ceat crown to his Wisden and C&L ranking.

Following are the details of the performance, with points, of Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya in the season just ended:

SACHIN TENDULKAR:

Opponents	Batting	Bowling	Fielding	Total points
New Zealand	117 runs at Bangalore (6)	__	1ct (1)=1	7
Pakistan	51 runs at Toranto (1), 67 runs at Dhaka (1), 95 runs at Dhaka (2)=4	2 wkts at Chennai (1), 3 wkts at Dhaka (2)=3	12ct (12)=12	19
Sri Lanka	53 runs at Colombo (1), 82* at Guwahati (2), 143 runs at Colombo (7), 139 runs at Colombo (7), 148 runs at Mumbai (7)=24	__	6ct (6)=6	30
England	91 runs at Sharjah (2)=2	__	1ct(1)=1	3
Bangladesh	54 runs at Dhaka (1)=1	__	2ct (2)=2	3
Australia	100 runs at Kanpur (6), 80 runs at Sharjah (2), 143 runs at Sharjah (7), 134 runs at Sharjah (7), 155* runs at Chennai (8), 79 runs at Calcutta (2), 177 runs at Bangalore (9)=41	5 wkts at Kochi (7)=7	4ct (4)=4	52

SANATH JAYASURIYA :

Opponents	Batting	Bowling	Fielding	Total Points
India	151* runs at Mumbai (8), 63 runs at Colombo (1), 73 runs at Colombo (1), 66 runs at Colombo (1), 68 runs at Colombo (1), 340 runs at Colombo (30), 199 runs at Colombo (9), 53 runs at Mohali (1) 50 runs at Mumbai (1) = 53	2 wkts at Colombo (1), 2 wkts at Colombo (1), 2 wkts at Colombo (1), 3 wkts at Colombo (2), 2 wkts at Mohali (1), 2 wkts at Nagpur (1), 2 wkts at Mumbai (1) = 8	3ct (3)	64
New Zealand	__	2 wkts at Hyderabad (1) = 1	__	1
Pakistan	96 runs at Mohali (2), 55 runs at Calcutta (1), 134* at Lahore (7), 57 runs at Kimberly (1)=11	4 wkts at Colombo (3)=3	2ct(2)	16
West Indies	85 runs at Antigua (2), 90 runs at St. Vincent (2)=4	5 wkts at Trinidad (7)	3ct (3)	14
Bangladesh	108 runs at Colombo (6)=6	__	__	6
Zimbabwe	50 runs at Colombo (1), 102 runs at Colombo (6), 68 runs at Colombo (1)= 8	2 wkts at Colombo (1), 2 wkts at Colombo (1)=2	1ct (1) = 1	11
South Africa	68 runs at Johannesburg (1), 51 runs at Centurion (1)=2	2 wkts at Port Elizabeth (1), 4 wkts at Cape Town (3), 2 wkts at Centurion (1)=5	3ct (3)	10