wisdom that unless a team can win overseas as well as at home consistently against all other teams, no national cricket team should be described as World no. 1 or the best in test cricket !
That way, neither India nor Australia or South Africa or England would qualify as the real World No. 1 and the team that arrives at the No. 1 spot by default would do so only because it has more victories or less defeats than others or because it has had the luck of playing most of its games in the season on home pitches where it possessed a distinct advantage !
In the past half a century, there has been only one side that truly deserved to be called world beaters and indisputable No. 1, and that was the West Indies side of the late 70s and early 80s.
They used to just stroll in and beat any side on any pitch anywhere on any day !
They used to go from 3-0 victories in India to 5-0 victories in England to 5-0 victories in Australia to 4-0 victories at home to 2-0 victories in Pakistan to 2-0 victories in New Zealand (South Africa, of course, was barred then due to its apartheid regime) !
And the West Indies did this for an extended period of time; for as much as a decade before beginning to taper off with the retirement of its greats !
Greenidge, Haynes, Richards, Lloyd, Dujon, Holding, Roberts, Marshall, Garner, Croft.........every team facing them would go in hoping just to remain standing at least into the fourth day of tests !
Re: Re: It ought to be agreed
by murali dhar on Nov 29, 2016 09:36 AM
hi,ur pun notwithstanding-West indies were a truly magnificient worldbeating outfit-capable of destroying opposition anywhere.India no doubt is emerging victorious-but as Ganguly pointed out-the icing on the cake would be to win at Australia/S.Africa and England over a 1-2 year cycle.Let's judge our Team by that time-G.Muralidhar
