Media reaction around the world upon India claiming the Number 1 position in ICC Test ranking

[graphic23]

:finger: UK, et.al

[Sachinism]

:finger: UK' date=' et.al[/quote'] :((

[ViruRulez]

hope they whine more.. the more they whine the better the win will feel :yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay: :yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay::yay:

[varun]

:yay: For the people whining about the Test Championship Ranking formula, pray tell what you would modify in the calculation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_Test_Championship#Test_Championship_calculations More weightage to away series ?

[Guest Hiten.]

:yay::yay::--D:yay::yay:

[Indianfan_Hyd]

will this help us in any way to retain our no. 1 ranking for a longer time?

But every cricket lover prefers India ranked @ no. 3 and play as many tests as possible even if they go down fighting.

[graphic23]

:((

:icflove: I meant to UK Cricket people. :P Not everyone in UK.

[akshayxyz]

:yay: For the people whining about the Test Championship Ranking formula, pray tell what you would modify in the calculation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_Test_Championship#Test_Championship_calculations More weightage to away series ?

At the beginning, they must have thought about it, and then they realized Aus was not winning enough in subcontinent, so thought against it ;).

[Feed]

India are lambs abroad no more – the Tigers are worthy of being named No1 | Dileep Premachandran India deserve to be the best team in Test cricket after reversing their fortunes since the heavy loss to Australia a decade ago Last Sunday, Bollywood luminaries and team-mates, his childhood coach, Ramakant Achrekar, and those he grew up admiring gathered at the south Mumbai residence of Mukesh and Nita Ambani, owners of the Mumbai Indians IPL franchise, to celebrate two decades of Sachin Tendulkar in Test cricket. There was even Asha Bhosle – of Cornershop's Brimful of Asha fame – to sing that classic from Umrao Jaan, Aankhon ki Masti (The Magic of these eyes). Tendulkar was a John McEnroe-admiring curly-haired bully of eight when the movie was released in 1981. But as much as he would have enjoyed the evening, it wouldn't have been a patch on what had happened earlier in the day, as victory by an innings and 24 runs over Sri Lanka at the Brabourne Stadium took India to the top of the Test rankings for the first time. To understand what it meant to Tendulkar, you perhaps need to go back a decade, to a Test tour of Australia when he was captain. A magnificent 116 at the MCG turned out to be a mere footnote as Steve Waugh's side annihilated India 3-0, the margin that had been predicted by Jaywant Lele, the BCCI secretary of the time. Those were the worst of times. The morning after the Mumbai victory, Rahul Dravid, who aggregated 93 runs in those three Tests a decade ago, spoke of how things had changed. "Back then, people were happy if we won one game," he said. "No one expected much more on overseas tours. These days, when you play for India, you're expected to win wherever you go." He and Tendulkar have played as big a part as anyone – Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble, both now retired, were the others at the forefront – in scripting the turnaround over the past 10 years. In the post-match interviews, several of the players and coaching staff spoke of the last 18 months, in which India have beaten Australia, England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, but to get to the heart of the revival, you have to go back to Eden Gardens in March 2001. When folk refer to Edgbaston 2005 as The Greatest Test, a lot of Indians are mystified. England bossed that game from the opening day. They never had to follow on 274 in arrears. Most importantly, they did not have to contend with Glenn McGrath, the greatest fast bowler of our age, or Waugh, who lost two Ashes Tests in his entire career (dead rubbers don't count). The team that India beat had won 16 in a row, and it was hard enough even to imagine beating them, leave alone go out on the field and actually do it. Yet, India did, in back-to-back Tests at Kolkata and Chennai. Everything that has followed, including triumphs at Headingley (2002), Trent Bridge (2007), Adelaide (2003), Perth (2008) and Johannesburg (2006) can be traced back to 14 March 2001, when Dravid and VVS Laxman defied McGrath, Warne, Gillespie and Kasprowicz, aka The Greatest Attack That Someone Born After 1980 Shall Ever See, for an entire day. Compared to that, beating Sri Lanka, even a team with the talent of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Muttiah Muralitharan, was a stroll along Marine Drive. What the victories at Kolkata, the Waca and the Wanderers also did was engender a belief that India could beat anyone, anywhere. The old baggage tags that said "Tigers in India and lambs abroad" have long since been disposed of, illustrated by 11 wins apiece on home and away turf over the past five years. In a field that lacks a team with the all-conquering aura of Waugh's Australians or Clive Lloyd's West Indians, it's inevitable that questions will be asked about the legitimacy of India's top-men status. The same could be said of the other contenders too, though. Sri Lanka have never won a Test in India, Australia or South Africa, while Ricky Ponting's team have lost to India, South Africa and England over the past 15 months. As for South Africa, they followed a sensational series win in Australia with an utterly inept performance on home soil. At the Wanderers and Kingsmead, the bowlers served up such filth to the callow Phillip Hughes that they should have earned endorsement deals with Melton Mowbray and Harry's Cafe de Wheels. A series against South Africa in March should have settled the argument, but that has now been indefinitely postponed in favour of yet another one-day voyage around India. And while it is fashionable to trash the BCCI for its attitude to Test cricket, that decision had much more to do with its South African counterparts, who could not alter their schedule to honour the commitment. Stung by criticism of its step-motherly attitude to the five-day game, the Indian board is now trying to work out a two-Test-and-three-ODI solution. Not that it will stop the snipers anyway. Writing in the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Robert Craddock said: "India will protect what they have got so dearly that losing will become a crime. It already is. The shamefully flat wickets we have seen in the series against Sri Lanka which have produced scores in the 600s and 700s will become more frequent." I was at all three Tests, and didn't see Sri Lanka cross 400 once after Ahmedabad. In Kanpur, they didn't even get to 300. The pitches must have been of the Arabian Nights variety, to allow India to pile up huge scores and then sabotage the other team. Never mind that Sri Lanka also won the toss and batted first in Mumbai. Never mind that the series was settled by a certain Virender Sehwag (131 from 122 balls and 293 from 254) and fabulous spells of fast bowling from Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan. Such facts invariably come in the way of a good India-win-only-on-dustbowls yarn. "This side is better than ours," said Ajit Wadekar, who captained India to away victories over West Indies and England in 1971. "Being No1 was a big dream for us and this team has fulfilled it. This team is more well balanced than my 1971 side. When it came to batting, our team depended on Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Sardesai and me. But this side has a beautiful batting line-up which starts with Virender Sehwag and has MS Dhoni at No7. It has good pace bowlers, whereas we did not have any. We had class spinners, of course, but this team has good tweakers too. It is led by a very astute captain in Dhoni." Having won in front of a full house in Kanpur and healthy crowds in Mumbai, India have done their bit to keep Test cricket in decent health. And the most important stakeholders, the players, clearly have their priorities right. "You don't grow up dreaming of batting four overs [in a Twenty20 game]," said Gautam Gambhir after his century in Kanpur. "You think of making hundreds and double-hundreds in Test cricket." As long as he and his fellow wayfarers, young and old – Yuvraj Singh has taken to calling Tendulkar "grandpa" – don't take their eyes off the red ball, they will remain within touching distance of No1. For a team that's as big a part of the national consciousness as A Seleção in Brazil, that's how it should be.

• India Cricket Team
• Sachin Tendulkar
• Cricket

Dileep Premachandran guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds More...

[Sachinism]

Most sensible article about India being number 1. Addressed all the nonsense spewed by all the haters. Good job Dileep :two_thumbs_up:

[Karan114]

Dileep is one of the fairest, unbiased writers around - he gives India/BCCI criticism where they merit it, but is not afraid to stand up for them where they deserve to be praised.

[Andy]

Rankings are not fair and never accurate: Boycott For a side which has just been crowned World number one in Test cricket, it is ridiculous that India [ Images ] would be playing just two matches in the longer format in the next 11 months, feels former England [ Images ] batsman Geoffrey Boycott. "I read somewhere that in the next 11 months or so India play only about two-odd Tests. How ridiculous is that? How can you judge India's performance over the next 11 months? You can judge them over the past few months - they have played very well and I have no problem with them being number one," Boycott said. He said the ICC [ Images ] ranking system should not be considered accurate unless all the Test playing nations play each other home and away equal number of times. "It (ranking system) can never be taken literally or accurately. Doesn't matter which country is at the top, because there is no fair way at the moment of all the countries playing each other the same number of times. So don't get sucked into believing that the ranking holds true for whoever is number one," he said. The cricketer-turned-commentator feels the top Test playing nations, including India, play each other more often only to make more money. "Top sides want to play each other because they want to make more money out of it. India, England, Australia [ Images ] and South Africa [ Images ] are going to play each other more than they do some of the other lesser nations," Boycott told Cricinfo. =================================== http://cricket.rediff.com/report/2009/dec/10/rankings-are-not-fair-and-never-accurate-says-boycott.htm

[vvvslaxman]

Original content is on cricinfo.

[Show_stopper]

Notice how he slips England in the list...how dumb is that? Until now they haven't beaten any of the top teams home or away. The exception being winning against Aus at home. Other than that they have lost home and away to the top teams..even SL have managed a draw in an away series with them.

[vvvslaxman]

Actually lot of oldies find it hard to digest we are no.1. They come up with all kind of excuses to deride us. As long as SA/OZ are on top. But to be fair to Boycs,, this was answer to a question raised by a "Siddarth from India" on cricinfo.

[jf1gp_1]

Actually lot of oldies find it hard to digest we are no.1.

I have no problem with them being number one is what he said. He isnt saying anything different than what has been said before.

[champ]

boycott is a pakis favourite .. not surprising .. he is echoing the same views as pakis ..

[dial_100]

Oh yeah...

[Andy]

boycott is a pakis favourite .. not surprising .. he is echoing the same views as pakis ..

Not just pakis.The lankans too!!

[Guest Hiten.]

Yeah, his mom could come up with a better ranking gauge :shot: