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March 4, 2002

Zimbabwe not in the same league

M J Manohar Rao and Srinivas Bhogle

After losing both the tests to India, and indeed after losing practically every test match in all their recent test series, it would appear that Zimbabwe are not in the same league as other test playing teams. Ranked ninth, Zimbabwe's current (RBI) rating is 18.45. Even West Indies (35.29), who are faring very poorly to be eighth in the Rediff ratings, are almost 17 points higher than Zimbabwe.

The current (as on March 4, 2002) home-away point tally of test playing teams is shown, below, in Table A.
-- How the rankings work...

TABLE A: Test Score Card (as on March 4, 2002)
A W A Y
Aus Eng Ind NZ Pak RSA SL WI Zim
H

O

M

E		 Australia 4 / 5
3.5 / 5
 1 / 3
3 / 3
 3 / 3
1.5 / 3
 2 / 3
3 / 3
 2 / 3
3 / 3
 1 / 3
3 / 3		 2 / 4
5 / 5
 1 / 1
-
England 1.5 / 5
1 / 5
 1 / 3
2 / 3
 2.5 / 3
1.5 / 4
 2 / 3
1 / 2
 2 / 5
3 / 5
 2 / 3
0 / 1		 2 / 6
3.5 / 5
 1 / 2
1.5 / 2
India 0 / 3
2 / 3
 1 / 3
2 / 3		 1 / 3
2 / 3
 2 / 4
1 / 3
 0.5 / 2
0 / 2
 1 / 3
1.5 / 3
 2 / 5
1.5 / 3		 1 / 2
2 / 2
New Zealand 1.5 / 3
0 / 3
 2.5 / 4
0.5 / 3
 1 / 3
2 / 3
 1 / 2
1.5 / 3
 0.5 / 3
1 / 3
 1 / 3
2 / 2
 0.5 / 2
2 / 2
 2 / 2
0.5 / 1
Pakistan 0 / 3
1 / 3
 1 / 2
1 / 3
 2 / 3
2 / 4		 1.5 / 3
1 / 2
 1 / 2
1 / 3
 2.5 / 3
1 / 3
 1 / 3
2 / 2
 1.5 / 2
1 / 3
South Africa 0 / 3
1 / 3
 2 / 5
3 / 5
 2 / 2
1.5 / 2
 2 / 3
2.5 / 3
 2 / 3
1 / 2
 1.5 / 3
2.5 / 3
 3 / 5
5 / 5
 1 / 1
2 / 2
Sri Lanka 0 / 3
2 / 3
 1 / 1
1 / 3
 1.5 / 3
2 / 3
 0 / 2
2 / 3
 2 / 3
0.5 / 3
 0.5 / 3
1.5 / 3
 0.5 / 2
3 / 3		 2 / 3
3 / 3
West Indies 0 / 5
2 / 4
 1.5 / 5
4 / 6
 1.5 / 3
3 / 5
 0 / 2
1.5 / 2		 0 / 2
2 / 3
 0 / 5
2 / 5
 0 / 3
1.5 / 2
 1.5 / 2
2 / 2
Zimbabwe -
0 / 1
 0.5 / 2
1 / 2
 0 / 2
1 / 2
 0.5 / 1
0 / 2
 2 / 3
0.5 / 2
 0 / 2
0 / 1
 0 / 3
1 / 3
 0 / 2
0.5 / 2

The corresponding ranking table, Table F, appears below.

TABLE F: Final Rankings (as on March 4, 2002)
Country Performance index (RBI) Rank Difference
11.2.02 to 4.3.02
Australia 74.44 1 +0.21
South Africa 56.96 2 -0.01
England 47.36 3 -0.03
Pakistan 43.23 4 +0.11
New Zealand 42.64 5 +0.09
Sri Lanka 41.64 6 -0.25
India 39.64 7 +0.38
West Indies 35.29 8 -0.07
Zimbabwe 18.45 9 -1.73

Every time we look at Table F the figure that really compels attention is Australia's imposing RBI of 74.44 which is 17 points ahead of the second placed South Africa. Our tables have still not taken into account (what Daniel Laidlaw called) Australia's "almost perfect" test victory in the first test of the SA-Aus series. Table G, below, indicates the likely RBI scores after the Aus-SA three-test series ends (we are assuming that Australia will either win or draw the next two tests).

TABLE G: LIKELY SCENARIOS IN AUS-SA SERIES
Result Aus RBI SA RBI Difference
Aus win 1-0 74.44 56.96 17.48
Aus win 2-0 76.06 55.49 20.57
Aus win 3-0 77.61 53.94 23.67

We believe that even these compellingly high RBI values fail to do Australia full justice because the Rediff test ratings do not still take into account the margin of a test victory. If we do this (which might be possible by looking at an index which considers the relative number of overs that the winning team requires to finish off the game), Australia would look even better.

Of course if South Africa manage to win the next two test matches they could still become the "official" champions of test cricket according to the ICC ranking scheme! That would be a complete travesty of justice. Just for the record, even a 2-1 victory for SA in the series would still leave them with 59.67 points in the Rediff ratings against Australia's 70.96.

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