A devastating blow for the ICC's rankings.....

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/current/story/537775.html

"England, the reigning World Twenty20 champions, have topped the ICC's inaugural rankings for the shortest format of the game."



We stumbled across a winning formula for a couple of weeks to win the T20 World Cup, but we lost it soon after.

Well FMD.

how many T20s does a country play in a year outside the world cup anyways? 2 or 3?

The One wrote:how many T20s does a country play in a year outside the world cup anyways? 2 or 3?

I'd say about six. Maximum eight per year.

We were unbeaten for ages. It's not surprising in the slightest.

Engulund rocks.

Brass Monkey wrote:We were unbeaten for ages. It's not surprising in the slightest.

Were we? Is it? Shows how much I care about T20s. I can only remember two England T20 games- The inaugural one at Southampton in 2005 where we thrashed the Aussies, and the World Cup final last year.

I dunno, apart from the WI WC game where we got dicked by D/L, we won about 12 or something.

I'll take your word for it.

Eng is a top T20 side and hence their loss to WI was quite surprising.

Now expect PPers to accuse ICC of being biased against Pak.

SG wrote:top T20 side

no such thing ... the results are utterly random

there is no reward for technique, either batting or bowling

all it has to offer cricket is a reinforcement of the scope for further fielding improvement

Even though I don't consider T20 as cricket, still Eng lead world rankings in 2/3 formats. Thats indeed impressive.

T20 has nothing to do with cricket; it's entertainment for goldfish

every team will top the rankings at some stage, in a completely random way

lardbucket wrote:T20 has nothing to do with cricket; it's entertainment for goldfish

every team will top the rankings at some stage, in a completely random way

Indeed.

The only non-test cricket thing that I would like England to some day win would be the world cup, but even that isn't as important as the real stuff.

It is a bit of a monkey that England need to get off their backs though.

Tests
WC finals
Shield

the rest is sh!t

but even that isn't as important as the real stuff.

Don't think Eng think tank thinks like you. Flower has already set his sights on next ODI WC, which is still close to 4 years away from us.

If thats not treating ODI WC as a very important event, nothing else is.

Tinpot Shield, you say? Don't you mean County 2nd XI?

English forumers may wish to substitute County Championship Div 1 for 'Shield'.

Well ...those who do not support Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Surrey, Glamorgan, or Leicestershire, anyway.

SG wrote:

but even that isn't as important as the real stuff.

Don't think Eng think tank thinks like you. Flower has already set his sights on next ODI WC, which is still close to 4 years away from us.

If thats not treating ODI WC as a very important event, nothing else is.

I said I want England to win it, and I should farking well hope the England set up want to win it too.

That doesn't mean it's as important as test cricket though and it never will be.

Given the choice of England not losing a test a series for 20 years but never winning the world cup or England winning the next 5 world cups but stumbling along at number 3 or 4 in the world at test cricket during that period, I'd go for the dominance in test cricket every time. I wouldn't expect anyone to choose any differently.

lardbucket wrote:English forumers may wish to substitute County Championship Div 1 for 'Shield'.

Well ...those who do not support Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Surrey, Glamorgan, or Leicestershire, anyway.

Before I read the whole post I immediately thought "not if you support Northants", then I read the rest .

lardbucket wrote:English forumers may wish to substitute County Championship Div 1 for 'Shield'.

Well ...those who do not support Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Surrey, Glamorgan, or Leicestershire, anyway.

Surrey went up at the expense of Northants.

It's like talking to a foreigner or something.

snicker ... could be worse, Danny, Derby or Glamorgan could have gone up

Actually that does seem unlikely

I don't begrudge Surrey their promotion because they clearly have the players. I wouldn't be surprised if they challenged for the title next year. But make no mistake, I'd have preferred anyone to go up ahead of them. Even Middx. Who also went up.

But you can refry it for a quick and convenient snack.

In any case, Mr Bucket, that's where you are wrong, because according to the Time of India, no lesser a player than Murali says so.

A day after England's Test captain Andrew Strauss raised concern over the future of the classical format, former Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan said that the longest version of the game will continue to struggle unless backed by more number of ODIs and Twenty20s.

"You have to balance it financially. Play a little bit more one-dayers and Twenty20, then play Test cricket," said Muralitharan.