ICC Test and ODI Rankings. Do you care?

[The Maestro]

Im guessing most fans do to a degree of course....but do you care enough?

It just seems to me that the media I read (papers/web/forums/everything) largely ignores a game or series impact on the rankings.......... and when one side moves up or down the table their seems to be little reaction to it.

Isnt the purpose of these rankings to be able to know that (eg) "my team is the 2nd best ODI and 3rd best test team in the world!" And to be able to speculate (eg again) "If we can roll Sri Lanka in September we will be 1st and 2nd!"

Or does no one really care and basically just concentrate on the series at hand

Personally before every series starts........... Id like to see Richard Boock (NZ's National papers cricket writer) publish a graph with all possible series results and their impact on my teams rankings, possibly with other current series forcasted results factored in.

Even if dead rubbers the media seems to miss this trick for promoting the rankings and therfore the game itself

 

[Tom Halsey]

In a word? No.

 

[Langeveldt]

yes.. Its about the only thing in the ICC that isn't wrong..

 

[Tom Halsey]

They're the best ratings around, but they're far from perfect.

 

[Jono]

Yes to an extent. Well test rankings more so than ODIs, because it seems the ODI rankings fluctuate nearly every series due to the closeness of every team other than Australia at the top, and WI, Zim, Bang at the bottom.

 

[Neil Pickup]

I couldn't care less, tbh.

 

[The Maestro]

How come you guys who dont care, dont care? This is the yardstick by which your team is judged against all the other teams isnt it? Thats like saying you dont care how good your team is?

I view the championship similair to the Duckworth Lewis, sure its not perfect but its as close as we are going to get......... and its "official" so..............

 

[Neil Pickup]

It's like the FIFA World Rankings in football... they're official - but they don't mean anything. They don't affect anything, unlike D/L which does directly affect the outcomes of limited over games.

These are like the LG Player Rankings - nice to look at, good for a bit of argument, but really... all they do is decide who's in what group for the World Cup.

 

[The Maestro]

It's like the FIFA World Rankings in football... they're official - but they don't mean anything. They don't affect anything, unlike D/L which does directly affect the outcomes of limited over games.

These are like the LG Player Rankings - nice to look at, good for a bit of argument, but really... all they do is decide who's in what group for the World Cup.

thats "all?"

Im not 100% sure but dont the FIFA rankings do the same thing? For both sports thats hardly what Id call a minor detail

 

[Neil Pickup]

To me, it is a minor detail. You win the World Cup by beating whoever you get to play against. If you're any good, what group you get stuck in is an irrelevance. Win your matches, you win the tourney.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

I care, yes. It's not what defines my interest in a series or anything, but I think it adds something to the results of each series to be able to look at how it will impact on the table. They will probably become more interesting as Australia comes back into the pack, though.

 

[Natman20]

Its not accurate because if everyone has different tours at different times the rankings just keep changing. Does Australia get more points for playing more games than everyone else? Don't really follow them as its not important. The most important thing is the World Cup

 

[marc71178]

thats "all?"

Im not 100% sure but dont the FIFA rankings do the same thing? For both sports thats hardly what Id call a minor detail

The FIFA rankings mean next to nothing. WC seedings come from the previous 2 or 3 Tournaments.

 

[_Ed_]

I don't really care about them...there are so many teams around the middle that just keep swapping around, doesn't mean much to me.

 

[andyc]

Hey, Australia's number one, and that's good enough for me!

 

[swede]

I think people care but the rankings arent really trusted.
When England beat Australia, it was generally felt that for England to be top they should go and win on the subcontinent and then retain the ashes in Australia.
That would probably also have given them top spot in the rankings but it wasnt based on the rankings.

 

[Tomm NCCC]

Yeah, I always keep a close eye on them, you have to really

 

[GIMH]

re

The difference is, with the FIFA rankings, they are just an irrelevance that nobody really cares about because the World Cup is what international football is built towards, in Test Cricket there is no other championship besides these rankings, so I think they do matter

 

[LongHopCassidy]

Hey, Australia's number one, and that's good enough for me!

You noticed?

 

[LongHopCassidy]

I think a lot of people will start caring when Australia drifts down the rankings.