India: Deserved of No. 1?

[jboss]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article6942221.ece
What a pathetic article from the times. I for one am from South Africa and have no complaints a India being ranked number one. In fact I would like to say well done to India. A year ago South Africa beat Aus to ttake thier ranking and then lost it again in the return series. South Africa had proved themseleves to be the better team having beaten Eng and Aus away and drawing to India. That is a lot of hard work. Australia then regained the status of number one and deserved to lose it again due to the ashes. South africa were then handed the no 1 ranking again without earning it back and therefore do not deserve it more than India so, who have earned it. What's more is that any complaints from aus will fall on flat ears to the series where there were tooooo many shocking decisions that cost India. Aus are not playing like champs atm either and SA have to prove themselves this summer.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Anyone else find it ironic that he pits India against SA and the argument used is that India are mentally fragile and chokers?

 

[R_D]

Anyone else find it ironic that he pits India against SA and the argument used is that India are mentally fragile and chokers?

He must have forgotten that had South Africa not lost to Australia at home.. they would've been ranked number 1 right now.... anyway weird article... Just because South Africa or Aus is not ranked number 1..... there must be something wrong with the ranking system. The author couldn't find much fault with India's test performances so he went with ODI to back his argument.

I'm just surprised the article wasn't written by Michael Atherton tbh.

 

[Uppercut]

Jesus, he's only saying India aren't the world's best cricket team. Calm down ladies.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Uppercut in jumping the gun shocker.

The claim isn't ludicrous, its a valid one and well worth arguing in favour of. Its some of the reasons he gives that make it hard to lend credibility to the article. He's trying too hard.

 

[jboss]

Jesus, he's only saying India aren't the world's best cricket team. Calm down ladies.

No he is insulting them and other countries by implying that Aus and SA must not earn these rankings. Aus and SA have both lost a series in the last 12 months and Aus have in fact lost 2 with SA not even playing cricket.

 

[Uppercut]

I doubt Simon Wilde has any kind of anti-Indian agenda, if that's what you're implying. Some of the reasons he states are fair, others aren't. FWIW, I do think India have the best all-round side in the world, but I don't think they've really done enough away from home to be ranked number one.

 

[jboss]

And why exactly is winning at home not good enough? If SA and AUS can't do it with pitches made for them then I don't regard them as doing enough either.

 

[social]

India lost AWAY to SA, SL, Oz - hardly breaking news

It's like Safina being No. 1 in tennis - until proven otherwise, an anomaly

 

[silentstriker]

Haha, I knew the Kanpur pitch would merit a mention. I stopped reading at that paragraph, don't care what he said after that.

 

[G.I.Joe]

I doubt Simon Wilde has any kind of anti-Indian agenda, if that's what you're implying. Some of the reasons he states are fair, others aren't. FWIW, I do think India have the best all-round side in the world, but I don't think they've really done enough away from home to be ranked number one.

That's such an over rated excuse for denying them. Comparing the big three atm, SA and Aus can win in each others' countries because they have pretty similar wickets overall, while India is the odd one out with its pitches. This means India have a tough task winning both away series' in Aus and SA due to the unfamiliar pitches factor, while Aus and SA have to encounter vastly different conditions in only one out of the two possible away series' the three play amongst themselves.

 

[Sanz]

Edit :- Never mind.

 

[silentstriker]

What's the big deal? No one is claiming India are dominatingly #1 like AUS or WI were? They are perhaps just slightly better out of three good teams. Don't care. I'll take it. My life is complete. This is a million times better than winning WC, or anything the other 'formats' can do.

I might write my first fanmail, to Saurav Ganguly - he's as responsible for this as much as anybody.

 

[Shri]

If all the comments on that article page are put together to form a new article, it would be a better article than the one written.

 

[Uppercut]

That's such an over rated excuse for denying them. Comparing the big three atm, SA and Aus can win in each others' countries because they have pretty similar wickets overall, while India is the odd one out with its pitches. This means India have a tough task winning both away series' in Aus and SA due to the unfamiliar pitches factor, while Aus and SA have to encounter vastly different conditions in only one out of the two possible away series' the three play amongst themselves.

I have absolutely no objection to India preparing pitches that suit their own strengths when playing at home. But if they're going to do it, they can't use it as an excuse for finding it more difficult than most to play away from home.

It's very, very borderline in any case. Not much to choose between the teams at all. I wonder how the CW rankings would place them.

 

[Cruxdude]

I have absolutely no objection to India preparing pitches that suit their own strengths when playing at home. But if they're going to do it, they can't use it as an excuse for finding it more difficult than most to play away from home.

It's very, very borderline in any case. Not much to choose between the teams at all. I wonder how the CW rankings would place them.

SA may have better results than we do. But somehow their stock has come down in the recent months because of their bowlers not being that great. This Eng - SA series will be a good indicator of their form. If they win they deservedly take the first place.

 

[Sanz]

How long has it been since the current ICC ranking system was put in place ?

 

[Furball]

I doubt Simon Wilde has any kind of anti-Indian agenda, if that's what you're implying. Some of the reasons he states are fair, others aren't. FWIW, I do think India have the best all-round side in the world, but I don't think they've really done enough away from home to be ranked number one.

Since the retirements of Warne and McGrath:

                India    South Africa    Australia

Australia      L 1-2(4)    W 2-1(3)          -
England        W 1-0(3)    W 2-1(4)       L 1-2(5)
India             -        D 1-1(3)       L 0-2(4)
New Zealand    W 1-0(3)       -              -
Pakistan          -        W 1-0(2)          -
South Africa      -           -           W 2-1(3)
Sri Lanka      L 1-2(3)       -              -
West Indies       -           -           W 2-0(3)

 

[G.I.Joe]

I have absolutely no objection to India preparing pitches that suit their own strengths when playing at home. But if they're going to do it, they can't use it as an excuse for finding it more difficult than most to play away from home.

Well, nobody's stopping Australia or South Africa from preparing turners at home to get used to and make it easier for them to beat India in India either. The reason they don't is because it doesn't suit their strengths, same as India. There's nothing wrong with it. They get away with it because the majority of teams at the top happen to have their type of pitches. If Pakistan, SL and England were the top 3 teams, would there be a call for England to abandon their current setup and prepare pitches similar to Pakistani and Lankan ones? I don't think so. And if there were, it wouldn't look pretty.

If all teams decided to prepare similar kinds of pitches, we'd have plenty of teams with good away records and less than stellar home records, and the glorious homogenization to go with it. Screw variety. Lets penalise teams that don't win away games because they choose to not be sheep.

 

[SaeedAnwar]

I dont care what india is ranked, Australia and South Africa will always be ahead of india