Tendulkar tops Warne's greatest cricketers list

Sachin Tendulkar topped Shane Warne's countdown of greatest cricketers edging out Brian Lara, who was placed second. Curtly Ambrose, Allan Border and Glenn McGrath rounded out the top five in Warne's Times column.

Warne rated Tendulkar ahead of Lara on account of his mental toughness and hailed him as a "great player and a great man". He wrote, "Outside grounds [in India], people wait until he [Tendulkar] goes in before paying to enter. They seem to want a wicket to fall even though it is their own side that will suffer ... He [Tendulkar] grew up under incredible weight of expectation and never buckled once - not under poor umpiring decisions or anything else."

Warne and Tendulkar clashed several times on the field, but their most famous battles were on Australia's tour to India in 1997-98. Warne struck the first salvo, dismissing Tendulkar for 4 in the first Test, but was then taken apart in the second, going for 122 runs in 30 overs as Tendulkar smashed a matchwinning unbeaten 155. Tendulkar finished the series with an average of 111, while Warne's ten wickets cost him 54 apiece.

Five Australians were placed in the top ten, including three of Warne's captains - Border, Ricky Ponting and Mark Taylor. Ian Healy, tenth on the list, was described as the best wicketkeeper he'd ever seen.

Muttiah Muralitharan, who needs nine more wickets to go past Warne's record haul of Test victims, was the highest rated spinner - at seven. "He has helped to turn Sri Lanka into a formidable side at home," Warne wrote. "It is also worth remembering the work he did in the aftermath of the tsunami when he gave so much hope to people in despair."

Wasim Akram, who was sixth, was Pakistan's only representative in the top ten. Warne's complete list (of 53 cricketers) was dominated by Australia, with 20 players, though none were named among the top three.

Shane Warne's list of greatest cricketers
1 Sachin Tendulkar 2 Brian Lara 3 Curtly Ambrose 4 Allan Border 5 Glenn McGrath 6 Wasim Akram 7 Muttiah Muralitharan 8 Ricky Ponting 9 Mark Taylor 10 Ian Healy 11 Courtney Walsh 12 Mark Waugh 13 Anil Kumble 14 Rahul Dravid 15 Graham Gooch 16 Andrew Flintoff 17 Matthew Hayden 18 Merv Hughes 19 Aravinda de Silva 20 Adam Gilchrist 21 David Boon 22 Martin Crowe 23 Stephen Fleming 24 Brett Lee 25 Darren Lehmann 26 Steve Waugh 27 Jacques Kallis/ Shaun Pollock 28 Saeed Anwar/ Mohammad Yousuf 29 Shoaib Akhtar/ Craig McDermott 30 Kevin Pietersen 31 Tim May 32 Robin Smith 33 Allan Donald 34 Bruce Reid 35 Michael Vaughan 36 Andy Flower 37 Stephen Harmison 38 Sanath Jayasuriya 39 Stuart MacGill 40 Kapil Dev 41 Justin Langer 42 Ravi Shastri 43 Michael Atherton 44 Alec Stewart 45 Waqar Younis 46 Dilip Vengsarkar 47 Chris Cairns 48 Brian McMillan 49 Darren Berry 50 Jamie Siddons