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Incongruously, India have risen to the top in a format some would accuse them of neglecting – and their low frequency of Tests could cause them to lose their crown sooner rather than later. They are only the third team, after Australia and South Africa, to reach the summit of the ICC’s Test rankings since they were introduced in 2001 but their time there could be brief because of a schedule that contains only two Tests in the next 11 months.
Which means the duration of their reign will be determined by how their closest rivals, South Africa and Australia, fare in the next few months. “It is a bit of a concern, as we play only two Test matches in the next six months, so it will be tough for us to maintain the position,” MS Dhoni said after India’s victory in Mumbai. “I can’t do anything about the schedule. It is good to play Test cricket, at the same time we are here to play whatever cricket we are asked to play.”
Before their 2-0 victory, India were ranked third with 119 points after Sri Lanka and chart-toppers South Africa (122). The two consecutive innings victories in Kanpur and Mumbai earned India five points, taking them two clear of South Africa, while Sri Lanka slipped below Australia to fourth place.
During the period in which India have only two Tests – against Bangladesh – to maintain a hold on their No. 1 position, South Africa play at least four and Australia eight. A 2-0 win against Bangladesh isn’t likely to give India too many ratings points either, so they could be overtaken depending on how South Africa do against England, and how Australia go against West Indies and Pakistan at home, and in the away series in New Zealand and against Pakistan in England.
What is certain is that India will end 2009 as the No. 1 Test side because even a 3-0 victory for Australia in the ongoing series against eighth-ranked West Indies will give them only one point, taking their tally to 117, and no improvement in position.
India’s immediate threat is South Africa, but they will have to beat England by a 2-0 margin or better to reclaim the No. 1 spot. A 2-0 or 3-1 victory for South Africa will take them marginally ahead of India, 3-0 will given them 126 points, and 4-0 will extend their lead over India by three. However, if England win 1-0 or 2-1, South Africa’s tally will reduce to 117, increasing India’s lead by seven points.
If South Africa fail to recapture the top spot against England, India’s reign will receive an extension because even if Australia blank Pakistan 3-0 at home, following a 3-0 win against West Indies, their ratings points will increase only by three to 119. They will then need to win in New Zealand and beat Pakistan in England – an away series for Australia – to move up the ladder.

An unpredictable pitch and disciplined Australian bowling limited Pakistan to 91 for 3 at the halfway mark of their innings in the penultimate Group A match at Centurion. Kamran Akmal led Pakistan’s charge with a patient innings of 44 but his dismissal off Shane Watson in the 19th over prompted a slowing of the run-rate as Pakistan struggled to contend with Australia’s medium-pacers.

Akmal and Shahid Afridi, promoted in place of Imran Nazir, began the innings on a positive footing, pouncing on the short-pitched offerings of Peter Siddle and weathering the early storm of Brett Lee. Lee exploited the variable bounce to good effect but much of the pressure generated at his end was undone by Siddle, who conceded 22 runs from three loose overs.

The introduction of Mitchell Johnson into the attack prompted a reversal of Australia’s fortunes. Johnson’s first delivery surprised Afridi for pace and bounce, resulting in a top-edge and a diving catch for James Hopes at backward-square. The Australians might have capitalised soon after but for Nathan Hauritz’s fumble of an Akmal mis-hit at deep cover, leaving Akmal and Younis Khan to reel off a methodical second-wicket partnership of 45.

With a half-century in sight, Akmal chopped a shorter delivery from Watson onto his stumps to signal the start of Australia’s counter-attack. Younis, in particular, struggled to adapt to the pace of the Centurion wicket and Australia’s slower seamers, and it came as little surprise when he fell attempting to push the pace off Hopes for 18 (from 49 deliveries).

Shoaib Malik appeared more assured than his captain at the crease and signalled his intent early with a sublime six over long-on off the bowling of Hopes. Yousuf, meanwhile, began his innings cautiously, requiring eight deliveries before contributing his first run to the Pakistani total.

Pakistan’s middle-over struggles appeared to justify Ricky Ponting’s decision to send the Group A front-runners in to bat on Wednesday. Australia generally fancy themselves as total defenders rather than pursuers but recent heavy rain convinced Ponting to allow his seamers first use of the pitch.

India Will Miss Explosive Batsmans Spinning Skills Too

Another subdued practice session, another day of eerie silence. Team India is still coping with the unexpected loss of Yuvraj Singh and rejigging the middle order is on top of their list of priorities. However, with the Pakistan clash looming, the absence of Yuvrajs big-hitting talents could prove easier to tide over than his recently-developed skills as a part-time slow bowler.

yuvraj singh

Kevin Pietersens pie-chucker took two hat-tricks during the second edition of the Indian Premier League on South African soil and has bowled 194 overs in 56 games in the last two years. It is in the past year, though, that his bowling skills have gone up a notch as he bagged 12 wickets at 30.91. In the past 17 ODIs, he has even bowled his full quota of 10 overs twice, both away from home, at Christchurch and at Colombo, where he finished with a three-wicket haul against New Zealand at 3.10.
In Hamilton this year, he bowled nine overs in the fourth ODI at an economy rate of 4.44, picking up one wicket. Yuvrajs loopy tweakers have enabled MS Dhoni to play one specialist spinner in Harbhajan Singh more often than not and that luxury would have come in handy on a dry surface like at the Supersport Park in Centurion , where India play two crucial league games against Pakistan and Australia.
Now, either Yusuf Pathan or Suresh Raina will have to step up, with the only other part-time option being replacement Virat Kohli, who is expected to arrive only on Friday morning.
While Dhoni finds his hands tied on this fifth-bowler dilemma, there will be discussions aplenty on how to plug the yawning gap in the middle order. Dhoni might have to step up to the plate and return to his aggressive ways, but then who will play finisher as skillfully as the skipper has in the recent past Sachin Tendulkar too might have to attempt to play steadfastly throughout. Gambhir is back as opener but with Yuvrajs match-winning presence unavailable in the latter stages, will Dravid be under more pressure to up the ante
In the context of the upcoming Pakistan game, too, Yuvrajs absence acquires relevance. He was man of the series in Indias last full series against Pakistan. Besides , during the memorable 2003 World Cup game at Centurion, in a match made memorable by Sachin Tendulkars 98, Yuvraj had scored a crucial, unbeaten 50 as India successfully chased 273. The ground will miss his presence in this reprise of that big clash.
Incidentally, the batsmen is expected to stay back in South Africa for a while and has been advised rest.

ICC TEST TEAM RANKING

ICC ODI TEAM RANKING

It was nice winning the final One-dayer against Australia after losing the first six games. Now the real challenge for us is to keep the momentum going. It has put us in the right frame of mind for the upcoming Champions Trophy and will help our cause immensely.
We need to keep up the spirit of winning and the result will take care of itself. Going into the tournament , one thing that we want to change is the record of English ODI teams.
We have not won anything major in this format and have not even featured in a major Cup final since 1992. So heres the challenge for us.
One of the factors for our poor record is that we do not play as much One-day cricket as a team as the subcontinent teams do.
Besides, we have had different coaches in the last decade who have different thoughts about the One-day format.
While other teams have increased their quota of games, we havent . All this put together could be a reason for our struggle.
We have got some good young players, who have got nothing to lose. We just need to board the flight and go to South Africa and express ourselves fearlessly.
Of course, we do miss the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff. They are among the top ten players in the world. But we have to move forward and its an opportunity for young players to fill those big shoes.
My own form was down a bit in the last seven ODIs against Australia , but in West Indies and in the English summer I was hitting the ball really well. It was bit of a shame that I did not score many runs against Australia, but now comes the time to turn the corner.
Readers in India may wonder how despite having a county system where we play so much oneday cricket we still do not produce results at the international level.
One reason for that could be that at the county level we are in different teams working with different ideas. It is a matter of England ODI team working together and spending a lot of time to create an understanding and transform the results. I am sure with the new players coming in this is the start of a new One-day team.
Of course leading the way are two men I know very well. Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower. They instill confidence in us by looking at the positives.

Former captain Ian Chappell said that Ricky Ponting was a superior skipper than his predecessor Steve Waugh and was still the best man to lead the side in Tests.
Chappell felt the selectors sold Ponting down the river, picking an all-pace attack for the unresponsive pitch at the Oval and blaming Ponting for the debacle would be barking up the wrong tree. Not only did they (selectors) handcuff Ponting at the Oval with four pacemen on a palpably dry pitch, but they also, once again, resorted to the failed ploy of expecting part-time spinners to do a specialist task. This is a crime punishable by demotion, he wrote in his Daily Telegraph column.
Good selectors protect the captain from himself on the occasions when he requires that insulation. If Ponting clamoured for an all-seam attack at the Oval the selectors should have been strong enough and wise enough to advise otherwise, he explained.
Throwing his weight behind the beleaguered skipper, Chappell said, Ponting has many critics when it comes to his captaincy style. However, those pundits should realise the easy part is sacking a captain. The hard part is to find someone who will do the job more efficiently.
There is no doubt Ponting is still the best man to captain the Test side and thats not just because a demotion would risk robbing the side of its best batsman, he said. Now is not the right time for Australia to start thinking about a new captain. What is needed is a selection panel that has the vision to unearth young players with the skill and nerve for the long haul – and the good sense to choose a balanced attack and then let Ponting lead the way.
Rating Ponting as a better captain than the highly successful Steve Waugh, Chappell said, Despite results suggesting otherwise , Ponting is a superior captain to his predecessor, Steve Waugh. Ponting never runs out of ideas in the field, whereas Waugh, even with a more varied attack, was often devoid of inspiration when his captaincy was really tested.

The Australian team management has filed a report with the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit after a player was approached by a man suspected of links to illegal bookmaking. Cricinfo has learned the approach was made in the bar of the team’s London hotel, the Royal Kensington Garden, following Australia’s Ashes defeat at Lord’s in July.

The player alerted senior officials immediately and, following ICC protocol, team manager Steve Bernard filed a report with the ACSU. The matter is currently under investigation. The player is not suspected of wrongdoing, and has been praised by a senior ICC official for his prompt reporting of the approach in line with the ACSU’s player education programme.

Sources within the ICC and the Australian team, when contacted by Cricinfo, described the approach as “concerning” and part of a worrying resurgence in the presence of illegal bookmakers around major events. Sir Paul Condon, the chairman of the ACSU, told ICC meetings in Dubai and London over the past year that Twenty20 cricket posed the greatest corruption threat to the game since the dark days of Sharjah in the 1990s; a notion supported by recent media and anecdotal reports.

Cricinfo understands the ACSU is investigating additional approaches made to players by illegal bookmakers, or conduits acting on their behalf, during the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in England earlier this summer. One source said the ACSU was “well advanced” in several lines of inquiry, at least one of which also involved approaches made to players at a team hotel.

Senior officials are concerned that illegal bookmakers, emboldened by the new betting possibilities opened up by the Twenty20 game, are becoming increasingly prevalent around match venues and team hotels. After the inception of the ACSU in 2000 – in direct response to the match-fixing scandals involving international captains Hansie Cronje, Mohammed Azharuddin and Salim Malik – barriers were established to block bookmakers and their intermediaries from direct contact with players. But the approach to an Australian player during an Ashes series, coupled with those allegedly made to other international cricketers at the World Twenty20, have raised concerns that a new wave of corrupting influences is attempting to infiltrate the game.

A report in the Sunday Telegraph earlier this week, quoting an anonymous ICC source, warned that cricket was under renewed threat from illegal bookmakers. “Those in charge in the ICC understand that Twenty20 cricket has the danger of going back to the bad old days,” the source said.

The report suggested that the apparent resurgence in contact from illegal bookmakers was in part attributable to the second IPL, a tournament at which the ACSU was not in operation, reportedly due to its $1.2 million operational bill. Lalit Modi, the IPL’s commissioner, told Cricinfo last month the ACSU would be involved in future IPL tournaments, and an agreement in principle has been reached for the unit to police the Champions League Twenty20, scheduled to be played in India this October. “They have expanded their services and going ahead, all the tournaments, including Champions League and the IPL would have the presence of ICC’s anti-corruption unit,” Modi said, in a move welcomed by the ICC’s chief executive Haroon Lorgat.

Lorgat last week announced there was “absolutely no substance” to reports that Pakistan players had been approached by illegal bookmakers at their team hotel in Colombo during the recent series against Sri Lanka. The matter was investigated by the ACSU.

“The ICC and its members have a zero-tolerance approach to corruption and rightly so because the integrity of our sport with its spirit is one of its greatest assets,” Lorgat said. “On that basis it is entirely appropriate that any suggestions in relation to that subject are always reported to and properly investigated by the ACSU. I am pleased those investigations have indicated nothing untoward has taken place on this occasion but it is a reminder that all of us – players, officials and supporters – must maintain our vigilance to ensure we remain on top of the issue of corruption.”

Whether you agree or not, I firmly believe that cricket is still a gentlemans game. And even though I am not averse to change, I do feel the best way for the game to be played at the highest level is when it is played country versus country, and not club against club.
Ever since international cricket started way back in the 19th century, international games have always been followed more. Just look at the following that the Ashes or an India-Pakistan or an Australia-New Zealand series generates across the globe. The closely fought series recently between India-Australia and Australia-South Africa have also proven that these series are as much followed across the globe as the other rubbers that I mentioned earlier. Even nationals of those respective nations based in countries where cricket is hardly played closely monitor scores of their home teams ties. And believe it or not, I have always experienced that especially when it comes to non-cricketing regions (untapped markets , for those who refer to the game as business), people are more interested in Test cricket than one-dayers . Just to cite an example, go to any cricket academy or a gully cricket match anywhere in the globe and youll see people betting on the outcome of the Ashes, and not the T20 Champions League. So, those who fear Test cricket is nearing its death should keep their eyes and ears open instead of mouth.
And you dont need an expert to tell you that Test matches can NEVER be played between two clubs. Sometimes I just dont understand the purpose behind promoting so much club (franchisees) cricket for that matter. Twenty20 is a welcome change but its overdose, especially in the club format, can always prove to be futile for its shelf life.
Those who have been promoting the shortest format have been talking so much about things like audience span. For them, audience prefers much shorter games so a 20-over-aside just like a game of football will generate more audience interest than a Test match or an ODI.
But let me tell you that golf one of the most popular sports globally is never played three or four hours a day. Just like a Test match, it is played eight hours a day, four days a week. And people call the sport gripping just like a Test match. Every form has its beauty and that of Test cricket is testing cricketers endurance, fitness, skills and consistency . Even among the television viewers, iconic Test series continue to capture the imagination of the cricket fan.