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Australia cricket's No.1? What a joke when England are burning Ponting to Ashes!

Let's be honest, South Africa are currently the world's best Test side...and the Aussies no better than No.4.

by Greg Smith on 18 July 2009

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Ricky Ponting: No way his Australian side is No.1

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I've been reluctant to write about the Ashes because of the absurd notion that it's the ultimate form of international cricket. But now I'm ready to really let rip.

A glance at what's going on in the current Ashes series and the ICC world rankings has set me off.

The ICC world rankings put England on 101 points, just above Pakistan (100) which I coincidently feel would be a lively match-up for fifth and sixth spot on the ICC ladder.

Then, way up at the top of the rankings, Australia have virtually tattooed 'numero uno' onto their rears for all below to wince at. And therein lies my present cricket-ranking conundrum.

Somewhere, something is amiss.

Looking beyond the hype (and flipside insult) of this showdown between first and fifth being 'the ultimate form of cricket', to me, the rankings are practically meaningless. Especially as Andrew Strauss's England side currently are pretty much creaming Australia in every department.

How can this happen in a contest between the teams ranked No.1 and No.5? How is it that the fifth-rated team make the rankings of the two teams actually seem inverted?

In the current Ashes series, you'd be forgiven for thinking England are the 'pole position' side and Australia wouldn't currently convince many that they weren't eternal basement dwellers like New Zealand!

In football, it would be something like Grimsby United 3 Manchester United 0. It just doesn't happen and neither does rugby feature Japan whipping the Springboks 53-0.

Minnows behave themselves in tennis, too, and you're unlikely to find Roger Federer getting a lesson from Fabricio Du Randt (currently the ATP's 189th seed).

England, in cricket, have made the rankings meaningless. Bangladesh could be whipping India tomorrow - and who knows where Australia actually belong in the natural order of cricketing nations?

Finding a fair rating system isn't easy. I've compared South Africa's performance to that of Ricky Ponting's Australia in England and then factored in their series win Down Under to revise my list.

My 'real' world cricket rankings are: 1 South Africa; 2 India; 3 England; 4 Australia; 5 Pakistan; 6 Sri Lanka; 7 New Zealand; 8 West Indies; 9 Bangladesh.

Comments (6)

by macca on July 19, 2009

creaming in every department? Sure they might win the second test, but u fail to remember that australia were inches away from winning the first test? Or did u miss that match? Or are u simply an arrogant ass?

by philip green on July 20, 2009

bahahahaha! Australia are awful! more like number 14 than 4!

by liam jones on July 21, 2009

Your probably right. With Ponting causing the rot from the top hes going to drive all his players to drink. Imagine being a bowler with old sour face pontificating to you post every ball you ball telling you what to do next. Outrageous. I live in Aussie but say Go England. Fredddie walks the walk!

by Vipin Nand on July 24, 2009

How can you say that you lose one match the you don't deserve to be the Number one ranked team in the world. Look at the Allblacks mate. You obviously don't know the significance of thef the Ashes, ranking does not come into it, sort of like the Bledisloe Cup………….. For the last couple of years every team that beats Australia think that they are the number one team, mate there’s other teams you have to beat as well and you have to do this consistently. Theres three more tests to go…………..

by Brad on July 25, 2009

Lol at this shithouse article good ol shit for brains greg trying to be intelligent writing this crap. Is it jealousy that drives you to write absolute crap? it must eat away at you that no one really cares much for south africa the only country that hasnt moved on from the 50's and 60's.... i love being an aussie living in australia its beautiful everyday its not a bleak hole like england or full of rapists like africa... The sadest about you smith is you need to write an article on the net trying to bring every other country down to your level....... AUSTRALIA 2 SOUTH AFRICA 1

by paul mansi on August 02, 2009

In the last ten years, Australia have found themselves 1-0 down in a Test series on four occasions, and on none of them have they managed to win the series: September 1999 Went 1-0 down to Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka Lost the three-Test series 1-0 December 2003 Went 1-0 down to India at home Drew the four-Test series 1-1 October 2008 Went 1-0 down to India in India Lost the four-Test series 2-0 December 2008 Went 1-0 down to South Africa at home Lost the three-Test series 2-1 After 10 years in Brissie listening to you all tell me how good you were and then missing 2005 final test ( missus who is an aussie did not think this was important enough to delay her holiday.)I am loving being 1-0 up.