Number one position

[Howe_zat]

Spikey has a point guys

 

[Cabinet96]

Yeah, look, I'd say that the standard has improved if teams were fighting it out series after series with no clear winner. However, the trend of 4-0, 4-0, 3-0,3-1 etc. is pretty dangerous to the game IMO.

The teams being roughly equal would only equate to the standard of cricket improving if it meant close test matches and series'. If the number one team tours the number two team, gets butchered and then the new number one tours the number five team and gets butchered again, I wouldn't say it's a particularly good trend for test cricket.

You make a good point, and I think the reason for it is mainly home and away conditions, as I believe most of the top 5-6 teams are fairly equal. In fairness though, despite the series margins we've seen quite a few close test matches recently. England lost 3 of their 4 tests by under 80 runs, Australia beat South Africa by 2 wickets, Australia beat West Indies by 3 wickets in the dark, New Zealand beat Australia by little more than a handful of runs to play with and we've had a test match where all 4 results were possible with 2 deliveries to go.

 

[TNT]

Yeah, look, I'd say that the standard has improved if teams were fighting it out series after series with no clear winner. However, the trend of 4-0, 4-0, 3-0,3-1 etc. is pretty dangerous to the game IMO.

The teams being roughly equal would only equate to the standard of cricket improving if it meant close test matches and series'. If the number one team tours the number two team, gets butchered and then the new number one tours the number five team and gets butchered again, I wouldn't say it's a particularly good trend for test cricket.

Thats a good point, when the top teams get whitewashed it shows that the quality is not there. Maybe the pitch conditions are widening between countries and it is having an effect. Could we see teams developing two different teams to counter this.

 

[Cabinet96]

Thats a good point, when the top teams get whitewashed it shows that the quality is not there. Maybe the pitch conditions are widening between countries and it is having an effect. Could we see teams developing two different teams to counter this.

It may show the number 1 teams lack quality, but it may prove the mid table ranked teams have the quality as well.

 

[TNT]

It may show the number 1 teams lack quality, but it may prove the mid table ranked teams have the quality as well.

I did think of that but with Australia being one of the better mid table teams and they were recently described as the weakest team Australia have sent to the carribean.

 

[Cabinet96]

I did think of that but with Australia being one of the better mid table teams and they were recently described as the weakest team Australia have sent to the carribean.

The thing is it's so hard to judge teams across era's. All you can do to rate them is compare them with the other teams they played against in their era. So in terms of comparisons to the other teams in the world, this is one of the weaker Australian teams in the last 20 years, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're much weaker than they ever wore. For all we know the Australian team could be just as good as they were 10 years ago, yet the rest of the world just improved a great deal. I don't personally think that, but it's hard to be able to prove anything with regards to this, so you never know.

 

[smash84]

I do think watching cricket over a number of years should give you an idea as to what is and what is not good quality cricket. Close matches between 2 school teams wouldn't necessarily mean that the standard of cricket is very high.

 

[Dan]

I did think of that but with Australia being one of the better mid table teams and they were recently described as the weakest team Australia have sent to the carribean.

I thought the worst Australian team ever assembled was supposed to be the 1989 Ashes side. And they won the series. Comfortably. With Steve Waugh averaging >300 at one point.

Every time a country loses some stars - Warne, McGrath, Ponting declining .etc, the next side gets branded the worst ever. I thought this side touring was slightly superior to the 2008 model, ITBT.

 

[uvelocity]

the 89 side was the first time I really watched cricket. was a major let down when we finally started losing

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

nope!

 

[Burgey]

Or that the quality of cricket has spread from one or two high class nations to four or five.

Dissipated to, not spread to.

 

[Debris]

I did think of that but with Australia being one of the better mid table teams and they were recently described as the weakest team Australia have sent to the carribean.

Some journalist rolls out this crap every second tour Australia goes on. Let's be clear, the worst Australian side to tour any country was from the mid-80s. Even for countries they did not tour.