New PWC ratings

[Swervy]

Tests batting
1 Matthew Hayden AUS

2 Rahul Dravid IND

3 Ricky Ponting AUS

4 Sachin Tendulkar IND

5 Brian Lara WI

6 Jacques Kallis SA

7 Herschelle Gibbs SA

8 Inzamam-ul-Haq PAK

9 Virender Sehwag IND

10 Graeme Smith SA


Test Bowling:
1 Muttiah Muralitharan SL

2 Shaun Pollock SA

3 Shoaib Akhtar PAK

4 Steve Harmison ENG

4 Shane Warne AUS

6 Glenn McGrath AUS

7 Anil Kumble IND

8 Jason Gillespie AUS

9 Makhaya Ntini SA

10 Daryl Tuffey NZ

ODI Batting:
1 Chris Gayle WI

2 Ricky Ponting AUS

2 Adam Gilchrist AUS

4 Sachin Tendulkar IND

5 Jacques Kallis SA

6 Brian Lara WI

7 Matthew Hayden AUS

8 Marcus Trescothick ENG

9 Michael Bevan AUS

10 Sanath Jayasuriya SL


ODI Bowling:
1 Muttiah Muralitharan SL

2 Shaun Pollock SA

3 Chaminda Vaas SL

4 Jason Gillespie AUS

5 Brett Lee AUS

6 Glenn McGrath AUS

7 Andrew Flintoff ENG

8 Jacob Oram NZ

9 Makhaya Ntini SA

9 Heath Streak ZIM

[luckyeddie]

The progress of Steve Wayward-Harmison is nothing short of dramatic.

I'm delighted for the lad.

[Kenny]

Harmison at 4 is still a joke though - what's he had, two good test matches??

[Craig]

<enters tooextracool mode>
While the hopeless Chris Gayle ranks at number 1 is an outrage.</leaves tooextracool mode>

No offence is intended.

[luckyeddie]

Originally posted by Kenny
Harmison at 4 is still a joke though - what's he had, two good test matches??

Nope - 4 .

The second innings of the last test against South Africa (4-33), then 9 in a game against Bangladesh at Dhaka (5-35,4-44), the first 2 tests in the current series (2-61, 7-12, 6-61, 1-40) and the current match (3-42 and ????)

In his last 3 tests, he has been man of the match. In his previous game against South Africa, he made the second innings breakthrough which was largely responsible for ensuring that England would tie the rubber (with major contributions from Trescothick and Flintoff, of course).

Sorry. Harmison, at the moment, is a very good bowler indeed - not anything like the shambolic figure who could hardly put one foot in front of another in Australia during that infamous ODI against Sri Lanka.

The joke is on the people who believe THAT image is the true Steve Harmison.

The way he set Chris Gayle up yesterday was absolutely classic. Three short balls, all clobbered, the crowd baying for more, Gayle rocking back to repeat the dose - only it's full of length and the off stump goes for a sit down.

'Sucker' says Harmison.
'Oops' says Crystal.

He's not the finished article by a long way - but he is no longer a tearaway. Sure, there's going to be times when he errs in line and length a la Brett and Shoaib. There's going to be occasions when he's taken apart. Lara might to that today - he's certainly due - but England have now, finally, got a strike bowler worthy of the name.

(mind you, if he doesn't screw up, the duck loses half of his material)

[Craig]

He will have to continue bowling really well until the Ashes and at the end of the Ashes in 2005 and then we can say he is world class or not.

[marc71178]

So he has to bowl consistently well for 2 whole years to be classed as World Class?

Some people really like to set the bar high... :rolleyes:

[Craig]

No in that time he has to prove he is more then a one series wonder and the WI despite their talented batting line up are hardly the strongest of opposition no offence Liam.

And if you do well against Australia it does kind of look does it not?

[Loony BoB]

I thought Kallis would be higher, but oh well. Nice to see Oram hitting into the all rounder list, too.

[marc71178]

Originally posted by Craig
No in that time he has to prove he is more then a one series wonder

I would suggest he's done that already in performing against 3 different sides in vastly different conditions.

[luckyeddie]

Originally posted by marc71178
I would suggest he's done that already in performing against 3 different sides in vastly different conditions.

Sorry, marc. The popular opinion about Harmison is that he is a no-brain bang-it-in tearaway who looks for speed at the expense of everything else.

*cough*brett*cough*.

Sorry. I have a cold.

A few of us are willing to give credit where credit's due - and the dismissal of Crystal yesterday was the nearest thing to fast bowling perfection you will ever see.

[luckyeddie]

Poor match this time by Harmison - just the 6.

That's what? 63 @ 23.25. Not bad for a guy who's a joke.

He'd better be careful or he'll be overtaking Shoaib (mind you, Warney will be blazing past him soon)

[Kenny]

Originally posted by Craig
No in that time he has to prove he is more then a one series wonder and the WI despite their talented batting line up are hardly the strongest of opposition no offence Liam.

And if you do well against Australia it does kind of look does it not?

I tend to agree.......a good performance against Bangladesh and two good tests against the Windies, and he's the number 4 bowler in tests in the world?

I saw him just over a year ago in Perth and he could barely land it on the cut portion........going to need a little more convincing I'm sorry.

[Salamuddin]

Sehwag in the top ten is a little amusing.


I believe he's displaced Laxman -- which is certainly very surprising.

[luckyeddie]

Originally posted by Kenny
I tend to agree.......a good performance against Bangladesh and two good tests against the Windies, and he's the number 4 bowler in tests in the world?

I saw him just over a year ago in Perth and he could barely land it on the cut portion........going to need a little more convincing I'm sorry.

Sorry. It doesn't work like that.

I could equally argue that Hayden doesn't deserve the number one spot because three of his best performances in the last year came against WI, Zim, Bang.

Similarly, what on Earth is Shane Warne doing in the top 4? Come on. The guy averages 55 against India. Let me know when the guy plays a series against them.

Funnily enough, the guy who isn't good enough to lick the Australians' boots bagged the wickets of the following on the rare occasions he hit the cut portion...

Damien Martyn - three times
Adam Gilchrist - twice
Martin Love - twice
Matthew Hayden
Ricky Ponting

He only took the above 9 wickets in 4 games against the Aussies. I agree - not very good. No tail-enders, note. What was the cream of God's own earth doing getting out to such a poor bowler - and so often?