Tendulkar not better than Don: Boycott

London, Oct 18 (UNI) After Sachin Tendulkar eclipsed Brain Lara as the highest Test scorer, former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott feels the master blaster's record was inevitable considering the number of matches he has played but this does not make him a better player than Australian legend Don Bradman.

Tendulkar yesterday became the first player to cross the 12,000 run mark in the longer version of the game with a tally of 12,027 runs.

''There'll always be people who break records because nowadays they play more Test matches than ever, more one-day internationals,'' he pointed out.

''It was inevitable that people like Lara and Tendulkar - two of the great players of the last few years - would break records of some distinction almost every other year or two.'' Boycott said had it been the case, then he too broke a record set by Gary Sobers by crossing the 8,000-run mark in Tests ''but it didn't make me a better player than Garry Sobers and it won't make Tendulkar a better player than Bradman, a genius - the best batsman of the lot.'' ''I broke Garry Sobers' record and I said at the time that if you play enough Test matches and you're pretty good at what you do then you'll break records,'' he added.

However, the Englishman said he remains extremely fond of Tendulkar for the way he has been conducting himself both on and off the field.

''Tendulkar has handled publicity very well. In India, where they're mad on cricket, it'd be easy to get sucked into it, but he's managed to keep a private life and kept that at arms length from his public life and it's nice for him,'' he added.

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