cricket with balls

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The ICC has its test rankings involving numbers and nerds.  Not Interested.  So I came up with my own.  They mean nothing, but neither do the ICCs and mine took less time.  They also aren’t numbered for a reason, because that would be stupid.   You can date the bottom girl on this list (actually make that second bottom) and have a great time, and perhaps have a shit time with the second lady.

Natalie Portman –

There is no outstanding test side at the moment, so no one gets the Portman from me.

Kate Winslet – India

Capable of great things, clever, classy and hot.  But how many really cool films has Winslet been in?  Has the potential to be the perfect partner, but would it kill her to be a curvy sexy ninja in a Rodriguez flick?  Best of the bunch at the moment, but still has improvement in her.

Suicide girls – South Africa

They are hot, edgy and look great in photo shoots. When you are seeing a midnight showing of Donnie Darko they are the ideal partner, but leave them up to their own good and, well, they aren’t called the suicide girls for nothing.  Do you want to spend your time hiding the razors?

Cute girl on the train – Australia

It seems like a great idea, but what do you know about the cute girl on the train.  Sure, she likes Palahniuk, is wearing a cwb t-shirt and seems to be listening to Coltrane, but she could be nuts.  Cuteness and good taste in popular culture are important, but for every hip thing about her, there will be something you don’t know about, like how she breeds rats to kill them while you have sex with her.  She could turn out great, but she could be bi-polar.

Ellen Page – Sri Lanka

Has raw natural cuteness and talent.  Yet is still a little odd looking.  Not in a bad way, but from certain angles you question yourself.  Your main concern is her never-ending journey to be the coolest person in the room, we get it Ellen, just stop being a wanker for 5 minutes and be in an adult movie.

Plain girl in the office – England

Easy to overlook, but could be the one.  Obviously not as attractive as movie stars or with the hipster taste of the cute girl on the train, but suits you better than most.  Can you really afford to shun her just because she wears cardigans?  Although it must be said, she is not a good cook.

Brody Dalle – West Indies

Rock and roll.  Big highs, but scary lows.  There is something that draws you in, you’re not sure what, and it could be illegal, but she is supercool and has access to free drugs and booze.  Might only keep you around for a short time, but it could be fun.  Until the come down.

A chick on roller skates with bright pink hair in pigtails – Pakistan

She looks awesome, but she wears roller skates. That isn’t safe, what if she is rolling up to you and she falls headfirst onto your lap.  That wouldn’t be good.  The wow factor wouldn’t be any good when you have been hit in the nuts, and if you are hurt bad and you need medical supplies, the girl with the roller skates cannot be trusted.  Practically roller skates are always going to end in tears.

Joan Cusack – New Zealand

Not conventionally attractive that is true, but funny, and who would try harder.  The laughs will get you through. Sure she has a relative way more better looking and richer, but he is a dude.  Could be a keeper, because if you stay with Joan you’d have funny intelligent chirpy moderately successful children, although watch out for twins.

Your mate’s teen sister – Bangladesh

Dude, she isn’t even legal.  Look away.  But check back in three or four years, just in case.

History can tell you many things. It can tell you that someone was a truly great player (I hope I don’t need to give examples). It can tell you that they completely wasted their talents (Vinod Kambli, for example). It can tell you that they punched well above their perceived weight (David Steele) and that they were perhaps not as good as you thought they were (Stephen Fleming, arguably).

What they don’t tell you is why some people simply dislike certain players, for no apparent reason.

Obviously, such assessments are, by and large, only valid once a player has retired and a small amount of time has passed. After all, everyone needs a chance to prove themselves – as Marvan Attapattu would testify.

So, with one exception to that rule, here are my least favourite five:

5. Ramnaresh Sarwan

It’s not anything that Sarwan has done to me personally. It’s not even what he has done on the pitch. But there is something about him which just screams ‘Humourless, self-centred, prick’. The stories of him spending charity dinners on the phone chatting to his mates don’t help, of course, but the biggest injustice is that Sir Viv’s career was blighted by haemorrhoids and Sarwan’s hasn’t been.

4. Raymond Illingworth

Where do I begin? Being a momumental egomaniac? Never admitting to ever having got anything wrong, ever? Ripping into David Gower for a brilliant runout because he might have given away an overthrow? Claiming to have been bowled off a plantain in the pitch? Or being the worst England Chairman of Selectors ever – no mean achievement in a field which also includes Peter May, Alec Bedser and Ted Dexter? It doesn’t really matter, the man was the epitome of ‘unloveable’.

3. Terry Alderman

Not because of his systematic torturing of English batsmen during the 1980s. Not because he once injured himself tackling a streaker. And not because he looked like a stormtrooper in that stupid white helmet. Simply because he was such a monumental arse, he was the only player to refuse me an autograph at Eden Park in 1982. Hell, Gary Troup even signed my scorecard right next to where I had recorded his dismissal. Even the freaking umpires were giving autographs. But the Great Terry Alderman thought it was all beneath him and strode off the pitch, shaking his head at every request. Cunt.

2. Michael Atherton

Why everyone thinks that Atherton was some sort of cricketing genius is beyond me. As a captain, he lacked inspiration and insight. He had no clue how to use a spinner, completely shafted Mike Smith on his one Test appearance and was among the first to have his head drop when things went against England. Yes, he was a great batsman, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Just read Steve James’ description of Atherton’s duplicity when they walked out to open in his first Test to see what I mean. Adding this together means that whilst some lauded the Atherton autobiography as a standout example of the genre, I read it as 200+ pages of someone shouting ‘LOOK AT ME, I AM AN ENORMOUS COCK’

1. Tillekeratne Dilshan

The winner by a country mile, for one very obvious thing. If you are a budding international cricketer, and if you want to change your name, don’t change it to that of your national captain, you enormous fucking suckup. It doesn’t matter what you have done or will do in your career, Dilshan, in my book you will always be the bloke who chugged a metaphorical nine incher to further your career. Need I explain further?

Today Dilshan made 195 runs.

The scorecard, however, says only 109.

The rest of the runs go to a cricketer who this very website has questioned the existence of.

The obvious reason was that Dilshan’s last 86 runs were so mindfuckingly spectacular that if we really saw them, it would have blown our little minds.

Instead, yet again, our collective conscious chose to invent this Mathews.

Before that Dilshan was good, but not so good that it would destroy our minds.

The “Mathews innings” was good, eye catching and important, but in the end it was safe enough that we could except its reality.

Regardless of all this Fake Angelo Mathews nonsense, this test is poised perfectly.

Sri Lanka’s scoring rate and India’s constant wickets have meant that this game can go either way, which is about all you can ask for in a deciding test after the first day.

If Angelo existed, he would agree.

I didn’t consciously ignore the SL V India test match.

There were times i watched it live, and others i followed via replays.

But every time I went to write something down I dozed off.

Batting is great, but when you are watching batsmen take on beaten men who know their best chance of taking wickets is taking a crowbar to the batsmen, what is the point.

That is why i ignored it.

I don’t blame the batsmen who cashed in, but why would i want to watch a glorified net?

You know when you have that dream that you are the most Awesomest thing alive.

Either you are a rockstar with men throwing their boxer shorts on stage, a boxer with old white Jewish writers saying you are better than Ali or some politician that fixes the world and also fights off evil aliens.

Everyone has the dream where they are cool.

Well channel that, are you there yet, are you awesome in your imagination.

Good.

Now think of Dilshan’s batting of late.

Be honest, is your imaginary character as cool as he is.

No, ofcourse not.

How could it be?

Dilshan is some sort of Steve McQueen/Angela Davis/Bruce Lee/Ned Kelly hybrid at the moment.

Cooler than Ice, Harder than Nails, tastier than a quick burger.

He is like some sort of souped-up super-pimp crime-fighting freedom-fighting bastard straight from hell.

And now he has a beard, how can your imagination beat this?

The dilscoop starfish thing.

The wearing a hat while batting.

The open chest surrounded by bling.

And everything else that he brings to the game of cricket.

All he needs is a Rolls Royce made of Gold, an ivory walking stick and cricket would have to crown him the grand poobah of batting.

What happened?

Not that long ago he was a middle order struggler who never really did enough and had a pretty ordinary record.

Now he is the dog’s bollocks, the cat’s pyjamas, the moose’s caboose.

On one level I want to know how this struggling dude made it to the top of the mountain.

But on the other hand, fuck it.

Let us just enjoy this gift of awesomeness that has surely been delivered by our God of Sehwagology.

Amen, Dilshan, Amen.