Sachin Tendulkar is to cricket what Mohammad Ali is to boxing - Brian Lara

Brian Lara has been all praise of Sachin Tendulkar ahead of the Indian batsman’s last Test in Mumbai

A good friend of the Indian maestro, and a contemporary great, Brian Lara has called Sachin Tendulkar the ‘Mohammad Ali’ of cricket.

Lara stressed on the fact that irrespective of numbers, some sportspersons come to be synonymous with the sport, and Sachin Tendulkar has done that, much like Mohammad Ali in boxing and the great Michael Jordan in basketball.

“In terms of stats, you’re going to have players with better stats, you never know. Virat has been exception in One-day games. There are boxers who have better record than Mohammad Ali but if you mention about boxing you’ve to mention Mohammad Ali, Basketball you have to mention Michael Jordan. When you speak about cricket, you’ll speak about Tendulkar”

Lara also had some words for Tendulkar for his 200th Test, suggesting that Sachin should only enjoy the game, and also slyly challenged him to break his world record.

“I would tell him, you had the greatest cricketing career than anyone. I don’t think any career compares with Tendulkar in terms of cricketing career. Just enjoy the next five days of cricket. You have the ability to score 400 runs, go score 400,” Lara said.