Thread: Minnows - How do you define them?

All countries has been minnows except Aussies and Poms. But no one defines who is a minnow. It's loosely defined as new entrant to test / ODI cricket. But when sides like Pakistan considered they had large number of players with test experience in their 1st test, so may not be minnows. So it needed an objective assessment to judge on minnows.

Batting and bowling averages of each country by decade was compared to that of rest of the world (batting ability and bowling ability). Two indices were created Pessimistic index (PI), where it was assumed that deficincies of bowling or batting could not compensate each other. PI was calculated with sqaure root of the product of batting and bowling abilities. Optimistic Index (OI) was average of the two, where it was assumed that batting and bowling can cover up each ones deficiencies.

Here are the results:

Code:

Bangladesh								
Decade 	Bat Av	Bowl Av	Gbat	Gbowl	Bat Ab	Bowl Ab	PI	OI
2000s 	18.95	53.19	33.13	33.22	0.57	0.62	0.6	0.6
								
India							
Decade 	Bat Av	Bowl Av	Gbat	Gbowl	Bat Ab	Bowl Ab	PI	OI
1930s 	22.04	38.4	31.61	31.94	0.7	0.83	0.76	0.76
1940s 	24.66	46.67	36.25	34	0.68	0.73	0.7	0.7
1950s 	26.45	35.09	27.53	27.68	0.96	0.79	0.87	0.87
1960s 	28.06	34.14	31.3	31.8	0.9	0.93	0.91	0.91
1970s 	30.05	33.4	30.9	31.64	0.97	0.95	0.96	0.96
1980s 	32.13	36.39	30.17	31.42	1.06	0.86	0.96	0.96
1990s 	33.1	33.46	29.09	31.3	1.14	0.94	1.03	1.04
2000s 	35.34	34.78	31.53	33.94	1.12	0.98	1.05	1.05
							
New Zealand								
Decade 	Bat Av	Bowl Av	Gbat	Gbowl	Bat Ab	Bowl Ab	PI	OI
1930s 	23.78	46.03	31.73	31.38	0.75	0.68	0.71	0.72
1940s 	30.11	42.11	34.56	35.01	0.87	0.83	0.85	0.85
1950s 	18.73	38	28.45	27.86	0.66	0.73	0.69	0.7
1960s 	22.66	31.79	32.06	32.14	0.71	1.01	0.85	0.86
1970s 	26.05	38.95	31.34	31.22	0.83	0.8	0.82	0.82
1980s 	27.82	30.38	30.8	32.31	0.9	1.06	0.98	0.98
1990s 	27.44	36	29.73	30.98	0.92	0.86	0.89	0.89
2000s 	29.76	33.76	32.14	34.06	0.93	1.01	0.97	0.97
								
Pakistan							
Decade 	Bat Av	Bowl Av	Gbat	Gbowl	Bat Ab	Bowl Ab	PI	OI
1950s 	24.42	30.1	27.68	28.41	0.88	0.94	0.91	0.91
1960s 	27.41	35.72	31.13	31.86	0.88	0.89	0.89	0.89
1970s 	33.13	33.52	30.46	31.71	1.09	0.95	1.01	1.02
1980s 	33.69	30.68	29.98	32.36	1.12	1.05	1.09	1.09
1990s 	29.03	28.52	29.51	31.9	0.98	1.12	1.05	1.05
2000s 	33.3	34.79	31.81	33.96	1.05	0.98	1.01	1.01
								
South Africa								
Decade 	Bat Av	Bowl Av	Gbat	Gbowl	Bat Ab	Bowl Ab	PI	OI
1880s 	7	22.95	18.91	19.17	0.37	0.84	0.56	0.6
1890s 	10.85	25.65	25.85	25.15	0.42	0.98	0.64	0.7
1900s 	22.24	21.65	24.11	25.39	0.92	1.17	1.04	1.05
1910s 	21.16	33.14	29.43	24.02	0.72	0.72	0.72	0.72
1920s 	26.2	34.15	33.69	33.03	0.78	0.97	0.87	0.87
1930s 	26.7	38.12	32.02	31.24	0.83	0.82	0.83	0.83
1940s 	30.64	42.97	34.92	34.3	0.88	0.8	0.84	0.84
1950s 	24.81	28.78	27.73	28.51	0.89	0.99	0.94	0.94
1960s 	31.65	30.26	30.74	32.28	1.03	1.07	1.05	1.05
1970s 	38.67	21.12	30.68	32.05	1.26	1.52	1.38	1.39
1980s 								
1990s 	31.64	27.05	29.24	32.02	1.08	1.18	1.13	1.13
2000s 	35.87	30.97	31.45	34.5	1.14	1.11	1.13	1.13
								
Sri Lanka							
Decade 	Bat Av	Bowl Av	Gbat	Gbowl	Bat Ab	Bowl Ab	PI	OI
1980s 	24.22	39.53	30.89	31.75	0.78	0.8	0.79	0.79
1990s 	28.9	35.67	29.51	31.12	0.98	0.87	0.92	0.93
2000s 	34.58	29.57	31.67	34.57	1.09	1.17	1.13	1.13
								
West Indies								
Decade 	Bat Av	Bowl Av	Gbat	Gbowl	Bat Ab	Bowl Ab	PI	OI
1920s 	16.1	40.32	32.53	33.12	0.49	0.82	0.64	0.66
1930s 	24.6	35.34	32.04	31.82	0.77	0.9	0.83	0.83
1940s 	42.89	31.2	33.41	35.88	1.28	1.15	1.21	1.22
1950s 	33.74	31.2	26.31	28.06	1.28	0.9	1.07	1.09
1960s 	33.66	31.81	30.37	32.16	1.11	1.01	1.06	1.06
1970s 	34.54	33.49	30.09	31.61	1.15	0.94	1.04	1.05
1980s 	33.05	25.02	30.03	33.69	1.1	1.35	1.22	1.22
1990s 	27.89	29.23	29.66	31.83	0.94	1.09	1.01	1.01
2000s 	28	38.49	32.51	33.5	0.86	0.87	0.87	0.87
						
Zimbabwe								
Decade 	Bat Av	Bowl Av	Gbat	Gbowl	Bat Ab	Bowl Ab	PI	OI
1990s 	24.4	36.05	29.78	33.96	0.82	0.94	0.88	0.88
2000s 	24.94	43.46	32.36	33.66	0.77	0.77	0.77	0.77

1. BAN, NZ (1950s) and SAF (1880-1890) have been appalling
2. Pakistan never had been a minnow side
3. WI, ZIM and NZ are the only sides to regress with time at some point of their cricket history
4. If 0.8 is taken as the cut off (to force SL of 1980s to become a minnow). Ones with PI and OI both below 0.8 can be considered as minnows
5. In 1990s ZIM cannot be considered as minnows.
6. SF Barnes also made merry against minnows (SAF)

Discuss

south africa could have been considered minnows when we re-entered cricket in 1992 (we were banned from international sport for more than 20 years because of the atrocious apartheid govt). all our players had never played international cricket before...

Yeah, that is a special case. But they have had very good FCC exposure IMO. BTW Kepler Wessles have played Tests in that team IIRC.

[quote author=Migara link=topic=23941.msg366924#msg366924 date=1247910824]
Yeah, that is a special case. But they have had very good FCC exposure IMO. BTW Kepler Wessles have played Tests in that team IIRC.
[/quote]

ja kepler played for australia and then was re-patriated. yes, the first-class cricket structure was very good which is why we could re-enter and do well. had it not been so great, we could have ended up very differently...

Even the south african XI in those days were very good. Especially when you see the scores between them and rebel XI of the West Indies

Minnows=whera Kapu & Muba make Runs..... ;D ;D

c'mon Bunnz, Muba and Kapu are better that all the crap that some sides had. They'll walk into current Banga team.

You are basically minnows until you beat England or Australia, no just England.

[quote author=marsques link=topic=23941.msg367506#msg367506 date=1248384165]
You are basically minnows until you beat England or Australia, no just England.
[/quote]

bangladesh have beaten them, beaten sa once, sri lanka twice and india twice. but they are still minnows.