Say Hello to the No.1 Test team in the World

[drainpipe32]

I'll get killed for saying this, but India deserved that drop. They played absolutely shocking and this is probably where India slipped out of my 'favourite teams other than Aus'.

 

[TumTum]

I still reckon Australia is one of the top teams, if not right at the top. SA are choking again and India are very inconsistent.

It is easy to throw our name out of the bag considering we are ranked 4th and lost the Ashes, but we could still beat any team any where.

 

[aditya123]

India dropped to number 8 in the ODI rankings after coming to the finals of the 2003 WC. It just shows how inaccurate the system is. But it is what it is.

I agree, the rankings may not be 100%, but you have to agree that India is certainly one of the best teams in the world right now. In my eyes it's a tie between India and SA, I don't see Sri Lanka being as close to being top dog as the rankings indicate.

That was because we lost our previous 2 series to NZ and West Indies in the lead up to the 2003 WC. I think we came out of the 2003 WC ranked 5th, not 8th. We dropped to 8th towards the end of the John Wright- Ganguly era and everyone would agree on how pathetic we were during those times. It got better when Greg Chappen took over and we had a good run in ODIs which took us back to somewhere near the top.

I cannot see a better ranking system,to be honest. What they could do is give more weightage to away wins and in case of ODIs, give more weightage to wins in tournament finals and ICC events.

 

[rahuldravidfan]

It is amazing to see the ICC Ratings being labeled as "RIDICULOUS" when India does well and "AMAZING" when Australia was No.1 for the past 2-3 years. :sarcasm

Talking about the Player Ratings, even I felt bad that despite bad form and blah blah, 6/10 Australians dominated the batting list. Apparently, the rankings were "very accurate" then. But now just because the Indian players are playing well, they become ridiculous? :sarcasm

Hypocrisy & whining doesn't take anyone anywhere. It doesn't take a lot of effort to say, "India is doing well & they deserve to be at the top of the rankings".

 

[Dare]

It is amazing to see the ICC Ratings being labeled as "RIDICULOUS" when India does well and "AMAZING" when Australia was No.1 for the past 2-3 years. :sarcasm

What?
Where are these posts saying these kinds of things.

 

[King Cricket]

That was because we lost our previous 2 series to NZ and West Indies in the lead up to the 2003 WC. I think we came out of the 2003 WC ranked 5th, not 8th.

If I am not horribly wrong, we were 2nd in the ODI rankings immediately after the WC. Yep, I still remember it. We were the second placed side, and the Aussies were the table-toppers.

As for these ICC rankings, yeah, the present ranking system can be real bizarre at times. But we shouldn't really be criticizing it, when we can't think of any plausible alternatives.

 

[rahuldravidfan]

What?
Where are these posts saying these kinds of things.

I would have loved it if you wouldn't have conveniently chosen only that part to talk about and instead picked on this-

Hypocrisy & whining doesn't take anyone anywhere. It doesn't take a lot of effort to say, "India is doing well & they deserve to be at the top of the rankings".

 

[sohum]

I think we came out of the 2003 WC ranked 5th, not 8th.

If I am not horribly wrong, we were 2nd in the ODI rankings immediately after the WC.

Instead of speculating, we can look at the actual historical rankings. In April 2003, right after the World Cup finished, we were 5th, as aditya123 posted. We fell down to 8th in August 2003.

sohum added 1 Minutes and 21 Seconds later...

It is amazing to see the ICC Ratings being labeled as "RIDICULOUS" when India does well and "AMAZING" when Australia was No.1 for the past 2-3 years. :sarcasm

No one used the rankings to justify Australia was number 1. It was clearly evident that Australia were the best team in the world when they were number 1. Right now, there is no team that is clearly better than the others, hence the rankings will come in for flak.

I think if there's one thing everyone here can agree on, it's that the ICC ranking system is pretty poor. However, it's the best metric we have got.

 

[pcfan123]

@ RDF

ICC Rankings or not, Australia were the number 1 team for the better part of the last decade. As Sohum pointed out, the ICC rankings are too muddled when the playing field is so even. In a way this is a lot more exciting to watch the ranking jumping around than seeing one team stay on top for years on end.

If you guys think these rankings are flawed then just just google BCS Rankings and see how ridiculously flawed/biased the College Football Ranking system is.

 

[Master Khan]

If India do become number 1 then what?

 

[Dare]

I would have loved it if you wouldn't have conveniently chosen only that part to talk about and instead picked on this-

It would have been nice if you actually quotes some of these posts where people are saying that when India is 1st the rankings are flawed.

No cricket fan needed the ranking to realize that Australia were the #1 side in both forms of the game by a long way.
At this moment there isn't a team that's a clear #1 like Australia were.

 

[Howsie]

It is amazing to see the ICC Ratings being labeled as "RIDICULOUS" when India does well and "AMAZING" when Australia was No.1 for the past 2-3 years. :sarcasm

Talking about the Player Ratings, even I felt bad that despite bad form and blah blah, 6/10 Australians dominated the batting list. Apparently, the rankings were "very accurate" then. But now just because the Indian players are playing well, they become ridiculous? :sarcasm

Hypocrisy & whining doesn't take anyone anywhere. It doesn't take a lot of effort to say, "India is doing well & they deserve to be at the top of the rankings".

Have you seen the lastest one by any chance? (The ODI rankings that is). New Zealand have moved down after just making the CT final and beating Pakistan at home, while Pakistan have moved up. If the ICC rankings aren't ridiculous then what are they?

 

[rahuldravidfan]

No one used the rankings to...

@ RDF
ICC Rankings or not, Australia were the number 1 team for...

It would have been nice...

I agree with you guys that Australia was the most dominant side in World Cricket. Their ranking was justified, fair enough, they deserved it. But what I object to is criticizing the ICC Rankings just because a team other than Australia, England or South Africa or the country a person hails from is being outplayed by say an India, Sri Lanka or Pakistan consistently. India has been on song since the past 1.5 yrs and its a bit ridiculous to see people attributing our rise in the rankings to a "flaw" in the Rating system than our consistently spectacular performance.

This constant anti-India rhetoric needs to stop. No one really gets anywhere with all this rubbish. Its a bit childish & naive. Just like the world appreciated Australia when it dominated, I expect the same people to adopt a similar viewpoint about India. If they can't, they should reserve their comments.

Be fair to everyone. India is No.1 coz we deserve to be No.1 !

Have you seen the lastest one by any chance? (The ODI rankings that is). New Zealand have moved down after just making the CT final and beating Pakistan at home, while Pakistan have moved up. If the ICC rankings aren't ridiculous then what are they?

Mate, we had similar problems in Dada's era and he realized that the only way we can solve this problem is to win consistently. Its like, winning a series and getting into the Semis/Finals of another will not take you from Pos.5 to Pos 2 or 3. Because there aren't just 2 countries playing cricket at that point in time. If say Pakistan is ranked at 4 just above Sri Lanka, does well in a tourney, wins one and makes it to the finals of the other, they will win more points than Sri Lanka, who at the same time play 2 series and do well in both. The scenarios like say bundling an opposition for under 180 or chasing down 250 in 45 overs also enables the team to boost their standing by getting more points.

Like I said, the only way to solve this problem is to win consistently. I'm sure NZ will be the No.1 side soon

 

[aditya123]

The whole thread might just become pointless if the Mumbai test ends in a draw or a Lankan win.

 

[Howsie]

Mate, we had similar problems in Dada's era and he realized that the only way we can solve this problem is to win consistently. Its like, winning a series and getting into the Semis/Finals of another will not take you from Pos.5 to Pos 2 or 3. Because there aren't just 2 countries playing cricket at that point in time. If say Pakistan is ranked at 4 just above Sri Lanka, does well in a tourney, wins one and makes it to the finals of the other, they will win more points than Sri Lanka, who at the same time play 2 series and do well in both. The scenarios like say bundling an opposition for under 180 or chasing down 250 in 45 overs also enables the team to boost their standing by getting more points.

Like I said, the only way to solve this problem is to win consistently. I'm sure NZ will be the No.1 side soon

So in other words the rankings are just pointless, something I've known for a while now.