For those who think he is not the greatest - 2

He plays cricket to earn money, not to win matches. He doesnt play T20 then why IPL ?

Answer is simple. T20 is obviously younger people's game. It requires all hitting and no technique. Imagine how painful it would have been to see our senior players ( Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly etc) hitting the ball like Robin Uthappa (walking down the track) or Chris Gayle( hammering, literally) do. Their batting style, technique is what makes them world class batsmen. And ofcourse strike rate also does play an important role. None of them ( and none of us) want India to lose because they can not hit the ball with strike rate of 200. But its not the same with IPL. In IPL they are playing for their own clubs and its the presence of these players that brings the spectators to the ground. The players have nothing to lose, having proved themselves already in the other versions of the game. And of course huge money is involved. So why should anyone say no to IPL ? That Sachin and his team are unable to perform well in IPL is different matter. And who knows, just like the underdogs RR and DC won the previous IPLs, MI might win it next time !

Ponting/Flintoff/Peterson/Dhoni/Lara/Gibbs/Jaysuriya and the lot are better cricketers than him :

Frankly, whenever any cricketer is creating waves across international media for his unique style, better strike rate, better average or whatever, Sachin is often compared with him and we start finding the non-existent flaws of Sachin. Eventually the so called 'better' batsman fades out and goes out of the limelight. Sachin has remained where he was.

Consider Michael Bevan. Steve Waugh called him better than Sachin because of his ability to rotate the strike and to remain notout. He did that for quite some time. Where is he now ?

Consider Jaysuriya. He is no doubt one of the greatest ODI batsmen, but has he been even 10% consistent as Sachin ? I dont think so.

Consider Flintoff/Peterson. Even this is funny. These 2 players are out of the team for more time than they are in playing for the team. Morever, how many matches have actually been won by them ? Except for the Ashes triumph, Peterson hasn't been involved in many great victories for England. His performance in ODIs is also not consistent. Flintoff, all he could manage was 3 ODI centuries and 2 five wicket hauls( 5 centuries in tests and 3 five wicket hauls). Peterson, a great hitter of the ball, his T20 record has been disastrous(average 15).

The only player who comes close to him in runs, consistency, centuries or match winning performance is Ponting. But he still has a lot of catching up to do, especially in ODIs. In tests he still has a chance to surpass Sachin. Lets see how far he succeeds. Only if he does that, he can claim to be the greatest, not before that.
Dhoni can definitely go down in history as India's best captain; but even he can't be compared with Sachin in terms of his style, technique, temperament ( and all such crap you can think of :-). And please dont say that you like his helicopter shot ! ). He is obviously unable to score more runs as he comes too late down the order. And he has taken a rather softened stand now as compared to his earlier days of hardhitting. His T20 record is also not very good (strike rate of 102). There have been a few instances where despite his being on the crease, India lost the match because he couldn't shift gear to come back into attacking mode. And most importantly, its still too early to compare a 5 year old with 20 year old in cricketing terms, isnt it ? Agreed, he won us the T20 world cup with a bunch of 20-somethings, but a crucial factor for that win was that since nobody expected anything from the team, they were relatively pressure free unlike the 2009 T20 world cup, where they faltered in the first round itself, because of the immense pressure. So if someone says the earlier T20 win was a fluke, then what's wrong with that ?

All said and done, people who want to, will keep finding flaws in him. And he, as always, without being affected by them, will continue to play like a god. Like David Shephard said, if he is not the best player in the world, show me the best player in the world.