Graeme Smith's statements about their batting side being equal to Australia's based on the points(!!) speaks a lot about the ratings mania. Australia defeated all teams consistently and reached the top. Let SA also do that and then talk of equality. Points don't matter. Two players cannot be equal despite scoring the same runs or taking equal number of wickets. There are many instances of such romantic characters eg Don Bradman/George Headley, Sobers/Kanhai, Barry Richards/Graeme Pollock, Peter May/Colin Cowdrey/Denis Compton, Ramadhin/Valentine, Trueman/Statham, Hall/Griffith, Prasanna/Bedi, Lindwall/Miller, Tendulkar/Lara, Greg Chappell/Vivian Richards, Weekes/Worrell/Walcott, Neil Harvey/Norman O'neill, Ian Botham/Richard Hadlee/Imran Khan/Kapil Dev, Steve Waugh/Mark Waugh and so on. All have captivated audiences all over the world. I don't care what their ratings are but would not miss their performances which are exciting and inspiring. Who is better? I don't know and don't care.
