Some things are more important than cricket. Bangladesh's national side had a tough time of things in New Zealand, losing the first two tests of their scheduled series; but could easily have been slaughtered in the terrible attack on a mosque they were visting, that happened soon afterwards. The third test was cancelled; I doubt many of those who would have been involved were thinking too much about cricket at that time. Meanwhile, Afghanistan have recorded their first test win, against fellow newbies Ireland. My cricket world ratings now look like this:
India 202
England 172
New Zealand 149 +10
South Africa 138
Australia 133
Sri Lanka 121
Pakistan 78
West Indies 1
Bangladesh -83 -10
Zimbabwe -248
Afghanistan -329 +18
Ireland -334 -19
All the ratings have been slightly adjusted, after I realised (when considering the recently cancelled game) that I had been counting cancelled matches as draws; I think it's better to simply ignore them, and recalculating the ratings, this leads to a slight shift in most team's ratings. The official ratings, meanwhile, are now as follows:
India 116
New Zealand 108 +1
South Africa 105
Australia 104
England 104
Sri Lanka 93
Pakistan 88
West Indies 77
Bangladesh 68 -1
Zimbabwe 13
The normal proviso applies here that Afghanistan and Ireland haven't yet played enoigh matches to qualify for a score.
But that's it for the moment. The World Cup is approaching, and there's no more test cricket until July; when Ireland get to play England at Lords, ahead of the English side squaring off against Australia in what could prove a closely balanced Ashes series.
