Like I said..

Viru: I agree that England didn't ask India to send a dad's army but it was a fact England faced laden footed seniors minus their main strike bowler out due to injury. They played a tattered Indian team on their home turf and whiplashed them. That made people to think that England was amazing.

Which they were not. They crumbled when faced with one good team even on their home pitches. We will see how good actually they are when they will tour India and face a rejuvenated team on Indias home pitches.
That will be their litmus test to beat India in India if you think you are any good and deserved to be a real number one ( that was the argument of fans against India, wasn't that).

Pine,

What do you consider being a "true" number 1 team then? Is the the length of time someone stays on top - I recall many england fans using the opposite arguement over india saying they werent "truely number 1" because had hardly played any away series in the time they were ranked in prime position.....

Ps - South Africa are a quality team, they deserve the number 1 spot. I see england and saffers retaining positions 1&2 for a number of years to come, other teams wont get anywhere close....until they replace quality with quality.

Don't get me wrong, I also agree that India weren't a true #1 but they were better than England are.

Personally, there have been two obvious true #1 teams - the Aussies and the Windies. A true #1 should be able to dominate tests around the world. India could only win at home and similarly, England only really managed home wins bar the Aussie win against a completely depleted side undergoing a transition.

Pakistan, not having played much test cricket nor having real home advantage murdered England 3-0. Even if it was 1-0 or something remotely respectable, you could argue they were just unlucky but to get taken apart in all 3 tests? Doesn't sound like a #1 to me.

Regarding SA - they have all the attributes to be a great team. They're the only team to really trouble India in India and have won in England, Australia and have a good record at home. We need to see how long they can uphold this though.

SA go to Aus next and if they win there then we might see them at the top for a while as they have two easy home series against NZ and Pakistan. Yeah I know I am saying Pakistan will be easy for them cos our batsman technique will get exposed on those tracks.

SA just lack in the spin department. Tahir is rather useless. If they can sort that out, then they'd be pretty complete.

I think England were a more deserving No.1 than India. SA were the most talented side since Aus lost the No.1 ranking, however they have been mentally fragile and have been unable to keep the No.1 ranking once they have achieved it.

The Aus vs SA series is going to be crucial, will Australia repeat what happened in 2009 and beat SA in a series to strip them of their recently acquired top spot.

We'll get to see whether Australia have really turned the corner with this new look team. It will be a similar test for SA, have they thrown off the chokers tag?

If SA win I think we'll see them top the tree for years if Aus win the No.1 merry go round is going to continue for the foreseeable future.

I disagree with duncan that England is a better team than India. Yeah they were better than Inida on their home turf. But no match to India on Indian turfs.
Further, Indians draw parity with SA in SA and beat NZ in NZ when they were number one. But for Kallis' brilliance they might have beaten SA in SA. Cause in last test they were so close to victory but Kallis converted it into a draw.
And England will find it hard to beat even dad's army in India. They are in for a good thrashing when they will tour India.

the thing is these days its very hard to predict what teams will do. Australia will be hard for them.

2 crucial series which will determine how the rankings will be in the next couple of years. Aus Vs SA and Ind vs Eng.
Its more fun to have teams swapping the places rather than it being stationary for years. It helps the fans to follow the cricket more just to see how things will go. tbh I like it this way.

toofan also india would have won the home series very easily against SA. The first test didnt have laxman and dravid, and bothe were at a pretty gd form. and actually in the 2nd test when we thrashed SA by an innings laxman was the reoson why we won that test.

Next time I hope SA come for 4 tests atleast at home. I highly doubt they would come victorious.