Longevity is a mark of ability. However dissect his form, his opposition, the teams he plays against and guys like Richards who never had free innings against the bangers or zimmers like the current crop of batsmen and the different rules for batting
admittedly they get more games against these teams now, but they also play more against the better teams. even the great don bradman even got tipped over the 100 average thanks to an average of 110 against south africa.
in the context of sachin v viv there is definate stat padding that sachin has done against zimbabwe and bangladesh while viv never played sri lanka and didn't perform well against new zealand (who decent by the 80's with more wins than losses, 17-15 from 59 tests).
some stat padding against sri lanka up to 1993; (they had 4 wins from 43 tests at this stage);
gavaskar 600 runs at 66, gooch 376 at 62, imran khan 46 wkts at 14, hadlee 36 at 12, waqar 16 at 17
stat padding ainst new zealand in the 60's and 70's (9 wins from 80-odd tests);
javed maindad 801 runs at 114, doug walters 720 at 72, g chappell 660 runs at 60, barrington 594 runs at 90, redpath 413 runs at 82, botham 41 wkts at 15, bedi 57 at 19, bob willis 28 at 19, derek underwood 48 at 12...
stat padding against zimbabwe (9 wins from 86 tests) and bangladesh (3 wins from 73 tests);
murali 176 at 16, vettori 82 at 20, waqar 80 at 17, kumble 52 at 20, s pollock 32 at 15, shane bond 24 at 11, kallis 38 at 14 (bowling), ntini 41 at 20, tendulkar 1738 at 99, dravid 1539 at 85, snagakarra 1400 at 78, jayawardene 1300 at 68, yousuf 1119 at 101, kallis 996 at 124 (batting), muppet 905 at 82, hayden 669 at 95, ian bell 633 at 158, ponting 550 at 78, steve waugh 546 at 273.
so there is more happening today, but there are also more internaitonal cricketers around today, and there is also more runs being scored, so where a guy ken barrington only had 594 runs against NZ in the 60's and 70's, that constitutes about 9% of his total runs, a pretty similar amount to what kallis or tendulkar or dravid has on these lists, and slightly more than say matt hayden and much more than steve waugh...
it is an interesting consideration and one that is not always easy to take into account.
what is also interesting is that a huge percantage of the modern day greats belted up on the minnows of their day, where as a lot of the older modern day greats didn't against their minnows;
v Sri Lanka to 1993; maindad 582 at 41, border 543 at 54 (pretty standard for him), imran khan 271 at 30 (batting), wasim akram 126 at 19 (batting), ian botham 41 at 13 (batting), abdul qadir 14 at 32 (standard going), wasim akram 22 at 30 (bowling),
and v new zealand 60's and 70's; imran khan 24 wkts at 28, sobers 17 at 37, lance gibbs 11 at 57, boycott 916 at 36, gavaskar 525 at 52 (standard), sobers 323 at 26, stackpole 197 at 19.7 (HS: 122), imran khan 168 at 33 (standard)...
