Stuart Hess: Choosy India's ranking as best Test side is flawed
Consider for a moment that when SA were the top dog in the five-day format, they had to win series in England and Australia to underscore that position.
|||New Zealand’s All Blacks are undoubtedly rugby’s best team. Germany is football’s best international team. The US rule at basketball.
There is no doubting the quality of those teams, nor their pre-eminence in their respective sports.
What of Test cricket’s best team? Currently, the ICC rankings say India are the best in the world.
And if those rankings were reflective of dominance on home soil, you’d have to agree, India are the best team in the world.
Trouble is, the rankings should reflect superiority in various conditions and in different countries against different opponents.
And while India have won its last two Test series away from home - in Sri Lanka and the West Indies - you have to go back to 2010 and a 1-0 win in New Zealand for the last time they won a Test series away that wasn’t in either Sri Lanka or the West Indies.
India’s status as Test cricket’s No 1 side at the moment, is ludicrously flawed.
Consider for a moment that when South Africa were the top dog in the five-day format, they had to win series in England and Australia to underscore that position.
India have done none of that and worse still they refuse to play against one of the sport’s major nations, who had risen to No 1 earlier this year on the back of an outstanding 2-2 draw in England.
Pakistan are the ultimate road warriors having last played a Test on home soil in 2009.
They’ve set up base in the UAE and slowly turned it into a fortress, overwhelming Australia and England there.
But not India. Those two countries have not met since 2007 owing to all manner of political disagreements.
Whatever the causes however, India’s status as Test cricket’s No 1 side is badly undermined by their choosing not to play the No 2 team, Pakistan.
l I’m not sure I see the value in removing Temba Bavuma from the Highveld Lions team on the eve of a four-day Sunfoil Series match to fly down to Cape Town as cover for three batsmen who, despite being injury concerns, had passed fitness tests and availed themselves for the final One-Day International against Australia.
Nevermind that the series is already won, but surely Bavuma’s time is better spent playing four day cricket for his franchise ahead of a Test Tour of Australia.
It’s a waste, not just of the player’s time, but it also robs the Lions of a very valued member of their dressing room, who is in excellent touch at the moment.
It’s not the sole reason they were bowled out for 110 in their first innings by the Dolphins, but it wouldn’t have helped their cause.
This was a bad decision by Cricket South Africa.
The Star