[Zobair]

Originally posted by Zephaniah
A country should lose Test status when over a prolonged period their opponents score more than twice as many runs per wicket. In other words, in the average Test, their opponents would win by an innings and plenty.

Twice this rule has been violated, when it should not have been. The first time was in the 19th century when privately organised teams from England, some including amateurs from club cricket, toured South Africa. These utterly unrepresentative teams were still good enough to average 25 runs per wicket against South Africa's 10; one English bowler took 15 wickets for 28 in a match, another 35 wickets at five runs each in a three-match series. Only retrospectively did a couple of statisticians decide these games were Tests.

The second period was during World Series Cricket, because Australia and West Indies were so strong that their second XIs could hold their own. It was when Bangladesh were prematurely promoted to Test status, when the game's own administrators violated 'the integrity of Test cricket'. In their first 21 Tests Bangladesh averaged 18 runs per wicket to their opponents' 59.

Starting with their inaugural Test against England last autumn, Bangladesh's Test status has no longer been a travesty. Thanks to the ICC's High Performance Programme, and Dav Whatmore's coaching, Bangladesh in their last seven Tests have averaged 23 runs per wicket to their opponents' 37, which at least makes a game if not a contest.

In their two Tests against Sri Lanka, as this massacre of the innocents was formally known, Zimbabwe averaged 19 runs per wicket and their opponents 96. In other words, in a theoretical average match, Zimbabwe would have needed five innings to score as many as Sri Lanka in one innings.

Source: telegraph.co.uk
Extracts from "Zimbabwe must lose their Test status". Scyld Berry gives the statistical reasons why

I think Bangladesh's rise from the ashes started even earlier...in their of Pakistan...surely Pakistanis didnot average more than twice our runs per wicket.