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The final ranking
Test Updates: |
March 14, 2002 SL and NZ gain, Pak go downM J Manohar Rao and Srinivas BhogleThese one-off Test matches are quite a nuisance. One Test match hardly makes a series. So, after Sri Lanka convincingly defeated Pakistan in the Asian Test Championship (ATC), we had some deciding to do. Either we say that Sri Lanka won its 'away' series 1-0, or we pretend that this Lahore Test was a 'delayed' fourth Test, adding to the result of the three-Test series played between Sri Lanka and Pakistan at Pakistan in March 2000. After some soul-searching we decided that we would choose the second option. So Sri Lanka, who were leading 2-1 against Pakistan in Pakistan after the March 2000 series, now effectively lead 3-1. The last time we faced a similar dilemma was in the 1999-2000 Test series at home against Pakistan. India lost to Pakistan at Chennai (if Tendulkar had won that match for India, it would certainly have been his finest Test innings by the 'Wisden criteria') and then defeated them at Delhi (Kumble's 10-wicket Test). The Test at Calcutta, which India lost, was officially a part of the ATC. But, in our Rediff ratings scorecard, we have listed the outcome as a 2-1 win for Pakistan against India in India.
The current (as on March 14, 2002) home-away point tally of Test playing teams is shown, below, in Table A.
The corresponding ranking table, Table F, appears below.
Table F therefore suggests that the "middle third" in the Rediff ranking table is where all the action is. We should expect this lively NZ-SL-Pak tussle to continue, unless SL dramatically surge forward (with away wins in England and Australia in 2002). As mentioned earlier, whatever the outcome of the Australia-South Africa series, Aus will still be No.1 and SA will still be No.2. England will have to play sufficiently well against New Zealand if they want to retain their relatively secure third position. For Indian fans it is the April 2002 India-West Indies series which is the most eagerly awaited. Since West Indies are still incredibly strong at home (with a 'home' weight of over 0.6), an Indian series victory will translate into dramatic gains in the Rediff ratings. If India don't seize this opportunity, they are doomed to stay in the "bottom third" for a very, very long time.
M J Manohar Rao is professor and director, Department of Economics,
University of Mumbai, Mumbai; Srinivas Bhogle is scientist and head,
Information Management Division, National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore.
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