ON THE BOUNDARY - 50 Test tons - never in my wildest dreams

When my father took me to see my first Test match, the West Indies versus India in 1953, Don Bradman, a little man from Australia, held the record for the highest number of centuries.

At that time, the number was what appeared - at least to me - beyond anyone's reach.

The record was 29.

In that Test match, Polly Umrigar, Pankaj Roy, and Vijay Manjrekar, in two innings, Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes, and Clyde Walcott, in one innings, scored centuries, and sometime after that a West Indian, Garry Sobers, notched up his 26th century to finish just behind Bradman.

Although six centuries were recorded in my first Test match, never in my wildest dreams did I believe that I would live to see the day when Bradman's record was broken. It seemed, to me, one of the records which would exist to my dying day.

Eight days ago, however, in SuperSport Park, Centurion, South Africa, another little man, Sachin Tendulkar of India, stretched the record to an unimaginable 50 - to one which, it seems to me, will go unchallenged forever.

Records, it is said, are made to be broken, but although Ricky Ponting, 39, Jacques Kallis, 38, Sunil Gavaskar, 34, Brian Lara, 34, Steve Waugh, 32, Rahul Dravid, 31, and Matthew Hayden, 30, have all also passed Bradman, my feeling, especially with five-match Test series becoming a thing of the past, is that this one will never be broken.

Great batsmen

Tendulkar is, undoubtedly, one of today's great batsmen. He is one of the greatest batsmen of all time, and if anyone deserves to set a record that will never be broken, it is Tendulkar.

He has delighted the fans with superb stroke play. In some 20 years, he played more Test matches than anyone, and he has scored more runs than anyone has ever done.

On top of all that, he could not have chosen a better match and a better stage than the first Test match at SuperSport to set his milestone.

That first Test match, and the third Test match between Australia and England at Perth, were played on two pitches which assisted fast bowlers. All four teams had some quality fast bowlers present, and they bowled, especially those from South Africa, Australia, and England.

Against some good batsmen on all four teams, against Hamish Amla, Kallis, and A. B. deVilliers, 140, 201 not out, and 129, against Gautam Gambhir, 80, Tendulkar, 111 not out, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 90, and against Shane Watson and Mike Hussey with 95 and 116 in those two Test matches, the speedsters bowled with fire, they swung the ball through the air, in and out, they got unusual bounce, and they had the batsmen bobbing and weaving, especially the Indians.

In the Test match at SuperSport Park, with Morne Morkel, five for 20, and Dale Steyn leading the way, they were deadly, and in Perth, with Mitchell Johnson, six for 38, Ryan Harris, six for 44, and Chris Tremlett, five for 87, setting the pace, they were almost unplayable.

Blown away

In Perth, England, coming off scores of 517 for one declared and 620 for five declared, were blown away for 187 and 123 in a match in which 38 of the 40 wickets fell to pace.

When I looked at the fast bowlers, all of them, with exception of Sreesanth, were tall.

They were Ishant Sharma and Saidev Unadkat of India, Steyn and Morkel of South Africa, James Anderson, Steve Finn, and Tremlett of England, and Johnson, Harris, Peter Siddle, and Ben Hilfenhaus of Australia, and when I looked at them, I remember some of the fast bowlers of yesteryear.

I remember, for example, Fred Trueman of England, Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson of Australia, Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, and Wasim Akram of Pakistan, Allan Donald and Sean Pollock of South Africa and especially bowling in South Africa, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, and Colin Croft of the West Indies, and Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, and Patrick Patterson also of the West Indies.

I also remember the promise of one like West Indian Franklyn Rose.

I do not forget a champion like Ray Lindwall of Australia and one like Malcolm Marshall of the West Indies because they were not big men. Whenever I look at the West Indians of today, however, and I see the little men bowling fast, I wonder where all the big men have gone.

Can't write off aussies

After Perth, the Ashes series is tied at 1-1 and after the events of the first two Tests when England went one-up after looking up the barrel halfway through the first, and after handing Australia a thrashing in the second, and nobody, love them or hate them, will write off Australia after this.

To suffer the indignity of dismissing England for 260, scoring 481, and then watching while England pile up an embarrassing second innings total, and to score 245 in the first innings and then see England scoring a massive first innings total to win by an innings, must have been humiliating.

For Australia to come back right away and dismiss England for 187 and 123 and win by an innings and 267 runs is class, nothing but class.