Downgrade weak countries: Ponting

[oracle]

The Age-Australia

He argued that second-string nations should play one-day cricket against each other in a second-tier competition before earning the right to compete against teams like Australia.

You're not tested, that's the thing. When you're playing at that level you like being tested all the time, that's why it's called Test cricket and one-day cricket as well," Ponting said. "You like to test your skills against the best players from other countries.

[Hasib]

ok... Pontings just being arrogent. He shouldn't do that. True this whole Zimbabwean series is reduculus but still. He also says that the ICC is giving more importance to Test cricket... over ODI... but he doesn't think ODIs are less importent. But in truth... test is the ultimate cricket... and the original version of the game.

[Patzer]

It took New Zealand twenty-six years to win their first Test.

[chinanan]

what they are doing

[sage]

Australian are singing this downgrade song to take Zimbabwe out of the test status. This is the vengance for suspending 15 white cricketer in Zimbabwe. Before that incident only big mouth Ganguli floated that idea. Ganguli thinks they have reached nirvana in cricket like Australia. Well they did not,they are far from it. It was not long ago when Pakistan would humiliate them in both day and night cricket. I would say Masri will crack his forehead open like Srikant next time we meet him.

Zimbabwe's action is deplorable. Zimbabwe should be delt harshly for it. That doesn't give them the right to axe Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a good team and improving in right direction fast in Dav's guidence. They can wait for NewZealand to come around for 26 years and they cannot give BD 6 years. ICC need to stop behaving this way.

[Pundit]

Ganguly is just glad to raise this raucous as it makes him more "white-like."

Arnab or somebody, please plot out their test rankings over the past 25 yrs as a percentile withing the test playing nation's pool.

And I know first hand what Zimbabwe was - politically, up until 1981 ! England in particular, and folks like Ponting want nothing but retribution, the political type. Mugabe may have taken things too too far (letting wild gangsters inflict bodily harm to like middle-of-nowhere 100 acre owing single caucasian maize farmer), but cricket is not greater than national identification.

There has to be parity. That's all that I am saying.