I started watching cricket during the 1996 world cup when Tendulkar & Lara were the two best batsmen. I certainly give Tendulkar the edge as the best batsman of my lifetime over the price of port of spain for his better consistency against the best pace attacks of that period - Wasim/Waqar, McGrath/Gillespie, Donald/Pollock, especially away from home.
But i pride myself as a fan who understands the history of the game & their is no way Tendulkar was better than Sir Gary Sobers & Sir Viv Richards. I'd even argue that Greg Chappell at his best was equal to Tendulkar at his peak between 1990-2003.
So having said that i would agree with Ian Chappell 1000% here in saying Sobers is the second best batsman after Bradman. I honestly don't see how this is not close to a unanimous worldwide view.
In ranking the game's the top 3 batsmen - Bradman, Sobers & Viv Richards i think is very clear.
After that placing the likes of Tendulkar, Lara, Pollock, B Richards, Hammond, Gavaskar, Hutton, Ponting, Border, Hobbs, Compton, Headley, Kallis, Border, Miandad, S Waugh, Weeks, Walcott etc etc etc in whatever order is all conjecture IMHO.