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 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 wicketk
