Friday, March 15, 2002 Sri Lanka were comfortable winners of last week's Asian Test Championship final, but does that make them the best team in Asia? Are two Test wins worthy of a crown? I suggest not. Establishing rankings on the basis of one Test is like judging a meal on the quality of the poppadums. Two Tests get you as far as the onion bhajis – a brief taster, though not nearly enough to satisfy.

A better option is to look at performance over a longer period. Which is the country with the best results in Asia against all comers? How do teams perform in Asia compared with elsewhere? With the much-hyped split in world cricket, and the perception that Asia is a graveyard for non-Asian teams, this is a question worth considering. The answer, of course, depends on the statistical method you apply, but a simple and consistent way would be to split ICC's Test table into two: Tests in Asia and Tests elsewhere. Taking Asia to mean India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, but excluding Bangladesh, who haven't played enough, this analysis throws up some interesting insights.

Sri Lanka do deserve their crown as Asian Test champions. In Asia they are the best of the Asian teams. But the true champions of Asia are African. In between clandestine meetings in hotel rooms and bugged telephone conversations, Hansie Cronje's gang forged a formidable record in Asia.

Pakistan's run of bungled home campaigns gives them easily the worst record of the Asian teams. The table for outside Asia also explodes the myth that Pakistan travel well. When it boils down to it, Pakistan are mediocre within Asia and without. Thinking – and telling everyone – that you are one of the top teams only gets you so far.

Australia's standing at the top of the overall Test table is heavily skewed towards their staggering record outside Asia. In Asia, they are middle-rankers. Can you really rule the world without dominating a major chunk of it?

West Indies would not be half as bad if they could remember how to play in Asia. They are the only team to score a blank in either table. India should be licking their lips for this year's home series ...

... but not for their visit to the Caribbean. Sri Lanka and India have a particularly shoddy record away from the subcontinent. In fact, Asia's paper tigers fill three of the bottom four spots in the outside-Asia table.

England, long thought to be one of the most inept teams in the heat and dust, are in the top three. You would not have bet your leather jacket on that two years ago.

Tests in Asia
1 South Africa 1.67
2 Sri Lanka 1.40
3 England 1.33
4 India 1.25
5= Australia 0.67
5= Pakistan 0.67
5= Zimbabwe 0.67
8 New Zealand 0.33
9 West Indies 0.00

Outside Asia
1 Australia 1.86
2 South Africa 1.46
3 New Zealand 1.23
4 West Indies 1.08
5= England 1.00
5= Pakistan 1.00
7 Sri Lanka 0.50
8 Zimbabwe 0.46
9 India 0.17

Note: The last figure is the average points per series, awarding two for a win and one for a drawn series, the system used for the official ICC Test Championship.

Kamran Abbasi, born in Lahore, brought up in Rotherham, is assistant editor of the British Medical Journal. His Asian View appears on Wisden.com every Friday.

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