New Delhi, Dec 14: Cricket Bible Wisden has rated batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar as the second greatest Test batsman ever, behind the legendary Sir Don Bradman of Australia. However, the little genius was a few notches ahead of several cricketing idols including Brian Lara of West Indies, Mark Waugh of Australia and Saeed Anwar of Pakistan in the shorter version of the game, where he got a close second place behind the indomitable West Indian Viv Richards.

The list by Wisden naming the top batsmen and bowlers in both versionw of the game was made after analysing the performance of every player and career length and importance of each performance to the outcome of an innings or match.
According to the list, Sri Lankan Muthiah Muralitharan and Pakistani Wasim Akram bagged the top spot in the bowling list for Test matches and one-dayers respectively.
While Muralitharan pipped many stalwarts like Richard Hadlee, Shane Warne, Dennis Lillee and Courtney Walsh, all of whom made a top ten finish, Akram was followed by Allan Donald Waqar Younis, Glenn Mcgrath and Joel Garner.
Besides Tendulkar, little master Sunil Gavaskar (8) and current Indian captain Sourav Ganguly (6) are the other two Indian batsmen who were named in the list for their exploits in the Test and one-day arena respectively.
However, no Indian bowler, including the legendary Kapil Dev, could find a place in the top-ten bowling list. Bureau Report