It’s good to be without a Number One

There isn’t a best team in cricket.
Yes, the ICC Rankings tell you so, but don’t believe everything what the ICC says. The ICC might even tell you the tooth fairy still exists and that the campaign of getting cricket to Rio Grande in the south and the borders of Russia in the north is going extremely well.

If you quit watching cricket a few years back, tired of watching the Aussies making a merry potpourri of every team they faced, then I call you back, happily announcing that the bad times are over. The bad times were one team looked over the rest like a Genghis Khan, and the rest could just silently murmur their prayers.

Now it’s a time where about some 4-5 teams are sitting at a round table with equal artillery at hand, battling it out to be the best. It makes for some bloody nice competition where they all get involved in a mad fight, you only see mowing arms and clouds of dust, and then all come out, battered and bruised. And then you still don’t know who the best is.

It also means you can shove them into another fight without the results being predictable. A skinny guy might actually give a bigger bully a bloody nose, ask Australia. It’s often good competition with interesting cricket, and now who doesn’t want that?

Of course with a vacancy at the No. 1 spot some have resorted to bragging and trying to get there with the big words. Which is wrong, because there is no best team:

Australia are only a silhouette of their past, they lost an ODI series to the Pommies, a Test to the Stanis and still haven’t won a T20 cup.

India’s bowlers are being put in a grave by the Lankan batsmen, and until they can’t creep above the sand, India won’t be number one. Even if they have a batting order that beats an elephant in weight.

South Africa suck this year and still don’t have a trophy in their cabinet. They’ve got good gadgets at their hand, but need to utilise them better. I seriously won't mind these big-tournament plonkers to become the No. 1, but for now it's only a pipe dream.

And about the other teams, I don’t need to explain. Not that they’re bad, I just don’t feel like it, and me telling you they aren’t the best either is enough. Isn’t it?