county cricket underated?

[Richard]

If it actually happened you might be able to get your "that doesn't count" b\s out.

 

[Richard]

Up to a point. We'll know for sure if WI regularly lose 3-0 at home, SA regularly lose by any margin at home and if NZ regularly get whitewashed by teams that aren't Aus. I think you know that I'm not one to label us "world class" on the basis of the last 12 months, but they're entitled to a bit of credit where due.

As I pointed-out in that article you may remember, NZ might well have been whitewashed several times had circumstances not conspired in their favour; the South Africans might have done poorly enough to lose the series but they still did well enough to expose certain players.
Incidentally, I'm hoping it'll be a while before SA lose at home again, because hopefully they might recover some shape from now on; but I somehow doubt West Indies will lose too many home Tests if we see many more pitches akin to Bourda recently.

 

[Richard]

You still say South Africa were slightly under-performing, even though they've now carried it on into a series against a significantly understrength side that you've just described as very weak when full strength.

The only side that underperformed in that series was England.

No, no side underperformed, several players did.
More of the underperformers were South Africans; as a result, certain Englishmen got flattering figures. And despite the fact that a few Englishmen underperformed, the only South African who got flattering figures was Ntini.

 

[Richard]

But Richard doesn't like them, so they're all automatically defined as useless.

No, I don't dislike any of them.
Some of them are pretty useless, though.