Eternal Debates

Debate on who’s greater between two persons is something which is of interest to everyone. There are several examples where people have been divided in their opinion when assessing the greatness of two great personalities. And when this argument goes on for years without a clear winner it becomes a sort of eternal debate. I have a list of personalities about whom people have been arguing endlessly. May be the readers can add some more

The first example that comes to mind is of the soccer super heroes Pele and Maradona. Though they belonged to different generations, the debate is still going on who is a greater player. Pele has the support of the old timers while the youngsters plump for Maradona. There are even frequent polls on internet to establish their greatness.

A similar kind of debate exists in cricket too. Donald Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar, two great batsmen belonging to vastly different eras. Bradman retired in 1948 and so many among the present generation haven’t seen him bat. His average of over 99.9 in test cricket hasn’t been surpassed and it is likely to remain as an unbroken record.

Those who favour Bradman say he batted without a helmet on under-prepared pitches.
But Sachin fans say he has been playing tests, ODIs and 20:20 version. Unlike Bradman who played just in England and Australis, Sachin has played in all the cricketing nations and he might well reach century of centuries in tests and ODIs by the time he retires. But he averages in the 50s in test cricket.

Moving on to music there is this debate on two icons of hindi film music- Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar. Rafi reigned supreme for two decades till 1969 when Kishore Kumar took over the top spot and stayed there till his death in 1987. The current internet generation swears by Kishore Kumar but purists still vouch for the voice and the singing skills of Rafi.

Down south, you have debate on music composers Ilayaraja and Rahman. Both have legion of fans in South India. But like in all the above cases the younger crop is with Rahman while those in the age group of forties and above feel Ilayaraja is unquestionably numero uno.

These debates about who has the superior edge will continue over the years. In internet polls, the personality backed by youngsters usually wins as the participants are more net savvy. But the other guy comes tops in any survey in the print.

I’m searching for more examples. Are there such personalities among women? Possibly Martina Navaratilova and Steffi Graf. Can comic book heroes Batman and Spiderman be included. May be readers can help.