March 3, 2010 - While the world is shouting that Sachin Tendulkar is the best batsman in the history of the game, there are some who feel the tag should go to Sunil Gavaskar.

And among them is none other than the legendary Sir Garfield Sobers, who rates the diminutive former India opener as the best batsman he's seen play the game.

"Gavaskar rated the greatest because of the bowling attacks that he came up against. At that time West Indies had a fast bowling attack that was unplayable; they had bowlers who used to bowl out teams in three days. Gavaskar played against those bowlers and he made a lot of runs. People make always make a lot of runs in their own country, under their own conditions, but if you look at Gavaskar's record, he made a lot of runs away from India; he made a lot of runs in England, a lot in the West Indies and Australia.

"He certainly came up as an opening batsman against the best of attacks like [Michael] Holding, [Joel] Garner, [Colin] Croft; you call them and he played against them," Sobers said at a function, in Mumbai on Wednesday, to celebrate the 40th year of India's first Test series victory in the West Indies.

Video: Wadekar on India's 1971 triumph

Sobers was the West Indies' captain when India stunned his all-conquering team to clinch the Test series 1-0 and then followed that up with their first series win in England.

In Mumbai on an invitation from Ajit Wadekar, India's captain in 1971, to felicitate the heroes of the that historic triumph, Sobers showered rich praise on the team that forced him to taste defeat 40 years back.

"The team that we played in 1971 was the best Indian team we played against. They won in England after that to prove that the win against us was no flash in the pan. They beat us and went on to win in England, which I thought they might do. At that stage they were one of the best teams in the world. They were beginning to prove themselves as a force to reckon with as far as Test cricket is concerned, considering that years before that India was looked at as a team against whom you play your youngsters," he said.

Video: Sobers on India's win over the Windies
"What interested me was the team that played. They had a very young team and they all played together like a team, and this is very important. That Indian team came out with a mission and their mission was to win the series and that is why they performed that well. Everybody pulled their weight and it was a combination of good young players like Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath with a great captain in Ajit Wadekar, and very good spinners in Bishen Singh Bedi and the others," the former West Indies all-rounder added.

He also stopped short of comparing great batsmen from the different eras, saying every great player like Gavaskar, Viv Richards, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar have their own special place in history.

"It is always difficult to make comparisons, but in my estimation, when you think of him [Gavaskar], you think of Lara, you think of Viv Richards, you think of Sachin Tendulkar. From my own perspective of classing players, because of that era in which he was playing, I would talk about him as my great player in my era," he said. More