The latest player rankings have been announced following the Test Series just completed between Sri Lanka and New Zealand, They are as follows:
Batsmen
1. Kumar Sangakkara (SL)
2. Gautam Gambir (Ind)
3. Mahela Jayawardena (SL)
4. Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI)
5. Mohammad Yousef (Pak)
6. Michael Clarke (Aust)
7. Younus Khan (Pak)
8. Graeme Smith (SA)
9. Ricky Ponting (Aust)
10. Jaques Kallis (SA)
Bowlers
1. Dale Steyn (SA)
2. Muttaih Muralidaran (SL)
3. Mitchell Johnson (Aust)
4. Makhaya Ntini (SA)
5. Harbhajan Singh (Ind)
6. Stuart Clark (Aust)
7. Paul Harris (SA)
8. Zaheer Khan (Ind)
9. Jimmy Anderson (Eng)
10. Graeme Swann (Eng)
In the history of these rankings, this must be Australia worst representation because outside the top ten, only Katich sneaks into the next ten at 19th - symptomatic of the batting collapses witnessed against England. Of the bowlers, the out of work Brett Lee is at 12th and Peter Siddle at 13th but then its a long way to Ben Hilfenhaus at position 34.
The dominance of South Africa and Sri Lanka at the top of the team rankings in underlined by the prominent position their batsmen and bowlers have in the rankings, with South Africa having three bowlers in the top ten. Mind you, its hard to imagine Paul Harris as the 7th best bowler in the world! Then again, Mitch Johnson sits at three.
With pointers to the summer, contractual negotiations not withstanding, the Australia public get another chance to see an aging West Indies batting line up in which Shivnarine Chanderpaul continues star. Their problem, like Pakistan's, will be bowling Australia out. With bowlers well down the list, Jerome Taylor (15), Fidel Edwards (24) and DJ Bravo (31) and Australia smarting, they will serve as retribution. Pakistan with Danish Kaneria (17) who bowls better than his pastry name sounds and Umar Gul (20) are a long way ahead of other Pakistani bowlers. In the batting, it will be a pleasure to see the two stars of world batting for the last few years, Mohammad Yousef and Younus Khan, taking on the Australia bowling attack at Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart.
I know this will always sound like sour grapes but the whole concept of rankings amuses me insofar as it is utterly stupid (in my opinion). Paul Harris the 7th best bowler in the world? You must be joking! The list shows how delayed the ranking is if Stuart Clark is up there. Can’t complain about the batting though. Where’s Sarwan on the list Lango?
ReplyDeleteI think Edwards and Taylor will be helped a bit by Aus pitches. What they played England on at home was disgraceful – absolute roads with nothing at all for pace bowlers. I hope WI put in here. I don’t rate Gayle as a captain at all but the word is the players are right behind him. Out of all the test playing nations I’m most concerned about WI. Once Sarwan and Chanderpaul retire there’s not much on the horizon it seems. I wonder if there’s a youth development scheme at all. The divisive nature of WI cricket compares to the religious/cultural/class divide in other countries which prevents players from the ‘wrong’ part of society from representing their country (of course this is difficult as the ‘West Indies’ is not a country).
Pakistan will be very interesting as the 20/20 world cup win has been forgotten after losing to Sri Lanka for the first time away in a long time. They have the talent with bat and spin but don’t expect too much from Gul – he doesn’t look all that consistent. I hope I’m proven wrong as they need to develop consistently competitive performances and series wins will result – like in Sri Lanka’s case. But hey, Johnson got wickets in England! It’s good to see them touring in any case, poor buggers. After those awful events at home it would take enormous strength to rebound and get back to playing (same goes for Sri Lanka).
Lango, what’s your experience of the issues I’ve raised above (political ones)?
Sarwan 17, Gayle 23, Bravo 42.
ReplyDeleteI'll answer the second part in the morning Leftie as I'm tired after a 250km round trip to a gig tonight.
some may say it is sour grapes -rankings- but it is human nature to seek comparisons, i think.
ReplyDeleteat best it is representative of recent form, and for mine is not much more than a bit of fun.
i wonder if Gul with his recent season playing SS here will lift for his team mates and bring in a bit more "local" knowledge?
in regard to having to bowl Aus out, surely with our current form that is the most likely scenario? ;-) of course my statement is only based on Aus and not the bowling line ups!
While the SA series here offered plenty of top batsment to pit our bowling attack against; i eagerly await testing Jonno and Hey-diddle against Chanderpaul, Khan, Yousef to gauge their development.
another great piece Lango
stoph
down the wicket
Just wrote you a long response Leftie and somehow lost the lot. Have to go outside now and do a lot of swearing.
ReplyDeleteWill have another crack tonight or tomorrow as I have an appointment in Armidale after lunch so have to get on the road.
FFFFFFFFFFF............
I started writing in Word because of that, Lango. I wrote some huge thing and then the page wouldn’t load so lost the entire thing. In case you’re not already, write it in Word and then copy and paste so if it doesn’t work you haven’t cut it and then risk losing it.
ReplyDeleteBloody computers!
good advice Lefty.
ReplyDeletewhat i do is highlight and copy long posts in the comments box, then if it kerfunks i can just paste straight back in.
we lost Gab due to him not being able to cope with that: both the occasional lose, and doing a safety back up.
Old dog, old tricks AND I STILL BLOODY LOST IT!
ReplyDeleteCelebrating tonight fellas, so tomorrow. Just as long as you know I haven't forgotten you.