Melbourne: Sachin Tendulkar failed to get a single vote as Cricket Australia (CA)’s contracted players chose Englishman Kevin Pietersen as the best batsman in the world outside their country.

Tendulkar may have been a thorn in Australia’s flesh for 18 long years and possess virtually every other batting record but the current 25 CA-contracted players did not deem him worth of even a single vote.

Instead, they picked former England captain Pietersen as the current batsman they feared most, giving him 50 per cent votes in a survey conducted this year, according to an Australian newspaper.

Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara was the surprise second best batsman with 34 per cent votes. South Africa captain Graeme Smith and teammate Jacques Kallis got seven per cent of votes each.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting said: “He’s the sort of player that is always taking the game forward. I’m not sure of his strike rate in Test cricket (63.35) but generally when he makes runs he gets them at a pretty good speed. For Brett Lee too, Pietersen is one of the hardest batsmen in the world to bowl to when he is on song.