During the early 2000s, I probably watched most of the international test cricket matches played on Australian shores. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this period also coincided with Australia’s dominance in the world of test cricket. Australia had not, however, always been so successful. In the 1980s, for example, the West Indies were the most dominant international team and the Australian side enjoyed only sporadic success. Similarly, in the last couple of years, Australia has had fewer series wins than India or South Africa. Which got me thinking: how could I best represent the cyclicality of test cricket success? The graph below is my attempt.
In this graph, I’ve only included test sides that have been ranked number one at least once since 1971. Thus, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh are not included. The height of each arc represents the number of consecutive test series that each side won (or lost), and the spacing between each arc represents the length of time that this run of wins or losses lasted. Flat lines (i.e., when no arcs are present) refer to drawn test series.
Notes:
- South Africa was excluded from international cricket during the apartheid era, re-entering the international test arena in 1992.
- Official ICC rankings were introduced in 2003. The unofficial rankings presented here were calculated by Dave Wilson.
Sources:
- Howstat - Test series results
- Dave Wilson - Unofficial (retrospective) ICC rankings
- International Cricket Council – Official ICC rankings
The Tour de France has just entered the second week of racing, and I’m tired. In a good way. Because if you’re an Australian fan of the Tour de France and you like to watch each stage live, you must be prepared to lose a little shut eye.
While I love the TV coverage of the race, it can sometimes be difficult to gauge how cyclists who are not race favourites fare on each particular stage. To this end, I created a graph using data from the 2009 Tour de France to determine the stages that had a major effect on cyclists’ times.
Source:
- Amaury Sport Organisation – Tour de France website