ICC rankings

Nice to see England with a 1-2-3 in the three international formats. Well done NZ also for getting within an inch of second test spot, in fact 2-4 in the tests including Saffs could be covered with a postage stamp. India out front still, Aus slipped somewhat. England being the kings of the 50 overs, have they peaked too early bearing in mind the biggie ahead?

Meanwhile, Aus is 5-6-4.

skully wrote:Meanwhile, Aus is 5-6-4.

That's got to be the lowest combined rankings for a while Skully?

Lowest combined EVER I think, whit.

I remember seeing a historical graph of Aus's Test ranking and I don't think we were ever lower than 4th (or maybe 5th) (mid 80s). Granted there were only 6 Test teams back then (with the Lankans getting the odd one off Test here and there through the 80s and generally getting smashed).

Similarly, it's hard to imagine us ever being below 5th in ODIs until recently, particularly given we won 4 out of the last 5 World Cups.

Aye, but has it been a steady decline in your view for whatever reasons, or is this just a 1 or 2 year blip that even the most famous teams get? Not helped of course by the ball tampering saga.
On which note i still maintain that they got caught where others have not. I don't put the 3 Australians anywhere near the 'should have been hung' category many seem to think apt. Well, not quite but you get my drift. They cheated and they got caught. Cheating happens in many sports including cricket but many never get caught. IMHO the Pakistan team were expert at it for a long time.

The three cheats got pretty much what they deserved. Warner got off lightly.

Sure other countries cheated and OZ were the last to discover the mysteries of reverse swing. The Stannies, Pomgolians and Yarps have long enjoyed mint fresh breath. I don't care much about the lack of penalties meted out by their Boards.

Still the ICC has finally updated their penalties for ball tampering and that is a good thing for the future of the game.

I think the main thing to take from the entire sandpaper debacle it is that the past two Australian Ashes victories are tainted and are effectively off the record now, meaning we haven't lost since 2007.

Still a few more years until we match the Australian unbeaten stretch but we are over half way there now.

vilkrang wrote:I think the main thing to take from the entire sandpaper debacle it is that the past two Australian Ashes victories are tainted and are effectively off the record now, meaning we haven't lost since 2007.

Still a few more years until we match the Australian unbeaten stretch but we are over half way there now.

Now that is amusing.

skully wrote:Lowest combined EVER I think, whit.

I remember seeing a historical graph of Aus's Test ranking and I don't think we were ever lower than 4th (or maybe 5th) (mid 80s). Granted there were only 6 Test teams back then (with the Lankans getting the odd one off Test here and there through the 80s and generally getting smashed).

Similarly, it's hard to imagine us ever being below 5th in ODIs until recently, particularly given we won 4 out of the last 5 World Cups.

Aye, was mentioned on Foxy last night that 6th is the lowest Aus ODI ranking.
Another Feather in the cap for James Sutherland and Co.

I'm not sure the rankings mean much. Everyone is beating everyone else.......apart from the Windies obviously.

They mean that James Blunderland has left Aus cricket in a dire state. Qunt.

skully wrote:They mean that James Blunderland has left Aus cricket in a dire state. Qunt.

... and left a pile of steaming cbnlg on the doorstep of Oz cricket's future.

It's good to know that the 5-0 and 4-0 beatings the Aussies have dished out are no longer on record, as i've been trying to excuse us being total doo-doo in so many Ashes series and finally i have some comfort.
Joking aside what are the feelings here on the next series, i genuinely think it's an away win. Broad and Anderson are past their best for me and i don't see where the wickets will come from and our top order has been utterly hopeless for some time now.

whitburn wrote:It's good to know that the 5-0 and 4-0 beatings the Aussies have dished out are no longer on record, as i've been trying to excuse us being total doo-doo in so many Ashes series and finally i have some comfort.
Joking aside what are the feelings here on the next series, i genuinely think it's an away win. Broad and Anderson are past their best for me and i don't see where the wickets will come from and our top order has been utterly hopeless for some time now.

As John McEnroe used to say...

"You cannot be serious!!!"

whitburn wrote:It's good to know that the 5-0 and 4-0 beatings the Aussies have dished out are no longer on record, as i've been trying to excuse us being total doo-doo in so many Ashes series and finally i have some comfort.
Joking aside what are the feelings here on the next series, i genuinely think it's an away win. Broad and Anderson are past their best for me and i don't see where the wickets will come from and our top order has been utterly hopeless for some time now.

Don't Australia have the best bowling attack in the world?

taipan wrote:

whitburn wrote:It's good to know that the 5-0 and 4-0 beatings the Aussies have dished out are no longer on record, as i've been trying to excuse us being total doo-doo in so many Ashes series and finally i have some comfort.
Joking aside what are the feelings here on the next series, i genuinely think it's an away win. Broad and Anderson are past their best for me and i don't see where the wickets will come from and our top order has been utterly hopeless for some time now.

Don't Australia have the best bowling attack in the world?

Well they have 3 genuine quicks Mr T and a spinner who's more likely to make use of any turn out there than say Ali, in my view. 3 young or quite young very quick bowlers against 2 medium pacers who yes have been very good in England for a decade but also very average anywhere else, but the fact is they have both lost pace and are not what they were. It would be interesting to see what the bookies think.

Anderson's strike rate and average are still moving in the right direction, so it's wrong to say that he is past it. Not so sure about Broad, but with a duke ball he will still be a handful.

skully wrote:

whitburn wrote:It's good to know that the 5-0 and 4-0 beatings the Aussies have dished out are no longer on record, as i've been trying to excuse us being total doo-doo in so many Ashes series and finally i have some comfort.
Joking aside what are the feelings here on the next series, i genuinely think it's an away win. Broad and Anderson are past their best for me and i don't see where the wickets will come from and our top order has been utterly hopeless for some time now.

As John McEnroe used to say...

"You cannot be serious!!!"

Yeah. I tend to be pessimistic about every Ashes series due to years of conditioning to crushing losses but even I can't see Australia as favourites for this one. Wouldn't put it past them to pull off a shock as our top order is aids, but unless Anderson gets injured or Australia find a cunning new way to sneak sand paper on then for the first time ever I think we might actually win this one.

I am relying on the Pomgolian weather to avoid a clean sweep.

horace wrote:I am relying on the Pomgolian weather to avoid a clean sweep.

I think there will never be a clean sweep either way because of the weather. Australia had the best chance in 2001, not sure it will happen again.

I'm going to day 4 at Old Trafford this year, just hope it's not a similar pattern to last year with 3 day tests, although you can usually rely on the Manchester weather to cut out any chance of that!

I go to England annually to visit my youngest daughter (currently teaching in Essex). I have been doing so for the past 3 years. The 1st year I visited in the English summer and was party to a good chunk of the 3-2 victory to the Poms (including Sturat's 8-15 at Trent Bridge - ugh). I decided late October (mid-term 1 school break) was a better way to go!! Gloating Poms can be tiresome.

skully wrote:I go to England annually to visit my youngest daughter (currently teaching in Essex). I have been doing so for the past 3 years. The 1st year I visited in the English summer and was party to a good chunk of the 3-2 victory to the Poms (including Sturat's 8-15 at Trent Bridge - ugh). I decided late October (mid-term 1 school break) was a better way to go!! Gloating Poms can be tiresome.

Mate, if we sweep you, we will only just be getting into our stride after two months.

I'll be gloating to f*ck even if we snatch a 1-0 with the rest of the summer a wash out. Ashes victories are still quite a novelty to me having waited until I was 20 to experience the first one (can't quite remember the victories in the year I was born and when I was 1 year old).

Fair dos, boys. I reckon it's far more likely that you'll be gloating and not us Aussies.

skully wrote:Fair dos, boys. I reckon it's far more likely that you'll be gloating and not us Aussies.

Agree 100%. Our only gloating will be about the failures of the Marsh kiddies and gcspoc and the number of times cbnlg uses the term "good blokes".