Who are the biggest rivals currently in World Cricket?

Traditionally and competitively, I would have to say England v Australia and although the games may no longer be as tight, you knw wen uve played or watched the Ashes. Both from a fans and players perspective none compare!

Rumour has it, when we last won the ashes, we carried out a procession through the streets of Melbourne. Suffice to say, based on the Aussies hatred of the English, it really didnt go down well.

Not as much of a fuss was made when Australia lost to India, then when they aussies lost the ashes, in Australia.

Even if Australia win the next 10 Ashes series by a margin of 5-0 each time, and if every single test match of every single Australia-India series went down to a nail-biting last-wicket finish, with every series decided on the last day of the last test, the Ashes will still be more special. You can't rewrite 100-odd years of history.

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everyone went crazy in 2005 because it was the damn english media. i mean just because the poms won after 20 years at home 2-1, doesnt make it 'the greatest series of all time'. hahahahha, so just when they win, we call it great? rofl...unfortunately it doesnt work like that...
the english rarely win anything worthwhile...and when they do, they keep gloating until people are sick and tired. and its like that with everything the brits do...they just wanna promote 'english-ness' at every oppurtunity, esp at sports...

for example, take tennis...i remember when tim henman was in top 10 in ATP 5-6 years back...every wimbledon he was seeded high, they came out with coffee cups with his picture and god knows what else because they were rooting for him and wanted him to win sooooooooo badly...so much that it scared tim henman and in his interview he said he can not look anywhere without seeing his picture everywhere during wimbledon!! they do this because they realized that they host tennis' most prestigious tourney, yet no brit man has won wimbledon singles in 40 years, which is embarassing for them! same with ashes...i.e. a country which gave birth to cricket hasn't won a world cup...rarely wins ashes, and at best, is a mediocre team in ODIs...

so, for the brits to hype up their lucky 2-1 win in the ashes is normal behaviour...thats what they do because they want to savour every moment of that RARE win...and they really did get lucky in that series...i mean they got slaughtered in the first match...aussies nearly stole the second test match even AFTER ponting had a mental fart where he chose to field after winning the toss and mcgrath rolled over a ball and injured himself 2 minutes before the test match (LOL!!)...no way did the brits dominate the series as the media pointed out...i mean, they only really won ONE test match (4th)...the second match they couldnt get warne and lee out for a 100 runs! LOL...

england got SO lucky that series...mcgrath didnt play much...england had all 4 pacers in form, which is rarer than a shooting star...and aussie batting just didnt work at the right time...so the brits won after 20 years AT HOME...big deal...no way they fought back the complete dominance by the aussies...

so, in my opinion, ashes was just temporarily hyped up ONLY when england won by fluke...it will be back to normal in the years to come when the aussies beat the crap out of the poms again and again like hoe they always do...so its not that exciting because the matches are mostly one-sided...

on the other hand, pak vs india is always on the top because of the history, the politics, the religion, passion and most importantly, the unpredictability...(lets be honest, brits play LAME cricket - hence the reason they struggle with ODIs and T20).
india vs pak is what everyone dies to see...it has recently lost its value because the BCCI and PCB are making it a business and playing each other every year to make money...but in my opinion, india pak matches beat any other rivalry hands down because they are soooo competitive, and things change all of a sudden that its beyond exciting...its the greatest rivalry in ALL of sports...maybe argentina and england soccer comes close too.

the second best rivalry, i would say has to be between Aus and SA...

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For us Indians now its surely India vs Australia.... b4 it was India vs pakistan and Australia vs England but both Pakistan and England have left far far far behind from India and australia so its Australia vs India on the top now...

Treads change and it may change again...

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@ PLAYERF

Yaar the rivalry has nothing to do with 2005...

England and Australia have been intense rivals for hundreds of years on both the cricket and rugby pitch.

The most famous rivalry is the Ashes series which stems from a burnt bail being placed in a small urn in 1882 to signify the death of English cricket after the Australians had triumphed on English soil.

The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media then dubbed the next English tour to Australia (1882–83) as the quest to regain The Ashes.

The battles remain as fierce to this day and have become famous for the ‘sledging’ that is designed to put batsmen off their game.

It also has a lot to do with the Australian hatred for the English which dates back 100's of years when England would send Convicted criminals to Australia instead of keeping them in prisons/jails in the UK. Suffice to say 90% of Australians have murderers rapists etc in their family tree lol and consequently we refer to Australia as a CONVICT COLONY

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I voted Zimbabwe -vs- Bangladesh because that is the only time they play competetive cricket We see hattricks, centuries and 300++ scores

To all indians: Don't ever underestimate us Last series was 3-2 to you, and you haven't actually "owned" us in the recent T20/ODI's. So pretty much even steven there

Pakistan ZIndabad!

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You last visited: 12-17-2007 at 12:53 AM

Bangladesh vs Pakistan.

There is no bigger rivalry then india pakistan

Originally Posted by Cunning_Linguist

@ PLAYERF Yaar the rivalry has nothing to do with 2005... England and Australia have been intense rivals for hundreds of years on both the cricket and rugby pitch. The most famous rivalry is the Ashes series which stems from a burnt bail being placed in a small urn in 1882 to signify the death of English cricket after the Australians had triumphed on English soil. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media then dubbed the next English tour to Australia (1882–83) as the quest to regain The Ashes. The battles remain as fierce to this day and have become famous for the ‘sledging’ that is designed to put batsmen off their game. It also has a lot to do with the Australian hatred for the English which dates back 100's of years when England would send Convicted criminals to Australia instead of keeping them in prisons/jails in the UK. Suffice to say 90% of Australians have murderers rapists etc in their family tree lol and consequently we refer to Australia as a CONVICT COLONY

i understand the significance and the history of the rivalry and how much the aussies detest the english. however, a rivalry is only a rivalry if its competitive. england australia is lop sided, and it doesnt even have that global viewership...not more than 15 million people (out of 70 million )in england watched the 2005 ashes on TV...and australias popn is around 25 million..so max...their own country's viewers are like 40 million, and that is saying it nicely...india pakistan viewership exceeds 500 million easily!

and this whole burnt ashes business and the history behind it...the hype is created by both the english and the aussie media because they tend to think that they 'own' cricket, and want to remind everyone how significant this is...

wait 50 years, and ashes wont be any different than any other rivalry, because the other rivalries will have the time behind them to play itself out.

so again, although i do not undermine the importance of the ashes and the history behind it...i do think that its over-exagerrated, and the rivalry is not really that competitive or close to be a real 'rivalry'. england winning once every 20 years is not really a 'rivalry' hehehe

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Has to be India-Pakistan and Austarila-England

Although if the current political tension between Indo Pak continues then I think this rivarly will very soon re emerge as to certain extent it was somehow 'written off' or perhaps were heavely underestimated and ignored.

Originally Posted by playarf

i understand the significance and the history of the rivalry and how much the aussies detest the english. however, a rivalry is only a rivalry if its competitive. england australia is lop sided, and it doesnt even have that global viewership...not more than 15 million people (out of 70 million )in england watched the 2005 ashes on TV...and australias popn is around 25 million..so max...their own country's viewers are like 40 million, and that is saying it nicely...india pakistan viewership exceeds 500 million easily! and this whole burnt ashes business and the history behind it...the hype is created by both the english and the aussie media because they tend to think that they 'own' cricket, and want to remind everyone how significant this is... wait 50 years, and ashes wont be any different than any other rivalry, because the other rivalries will have the time behind them to play itself out. so again, although i do not undermine the importance of the ashes and the history behind it...i do think that its over-exagerrated, and the rivalry is not really that competitive or close to be a real 'rivalry'. england winning once every 20 years is not really a 'rivalry' hehehe

I would disagree on a number of points there yaar.

Firstly, competitiveness, isn't a necessity. India Pakistan will always be rivals irrespective of how good either was or how one sided it got.

Similarly, on audience, cricket is the MAIN sport in the Asian Sub. In the UK, cricket is still a very middle class sport. That said u just need to look at the Barmy Army to see how competitive we are.

Australia may have lost to India, however beating or losing to England would make 5 times as many headlines...trust me!

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^we disagree because we have a different criteria in judging what a 'rivalry' is, thats all

to me, a good rivalry is when hard-fought, competitive cricket is played...everything else is secondary. i dont see england being competitive with aussies. sure, its exciting cricket (all cricket is exciting), but for me, india-pak takes the cake.

anyhow, to each his own!

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ASHES 2005 was emerged one of the finest series ever. Although, i am not familiar with Ashes history. But Cricket series like Ashes 2005 will remain unforgotten. The best fought series ever in 21 century!

Can't recall the last time India-Pakistan we have had enjoyed. I think Test 98-98 in India was the best. Sadly, After that, it has been one sided match.
India easily won Test series in 2004, and then, Pakistan produced miraculous performance in Third test in India to level the series 2005, but the series was indeed boring to watch. Then, continued to India tours of Pakistan 2006, was fine series, but wasn't much competitive enough to watch knowing that draw after draw, and finally, last test was little tough contest, but easily won last test by Pakistan. Then, Pakistan continued in India was perhaps, average series i have ever seen. Didn't enjoy the series. Although, Misbah was exceptional. Ashes 2006 was fine, but after second test, the series remained one sided.

I think it's always ODI series that both Pakistan and India produced the best. Pakistan-India Test series is nothing compared to Ashes unless both countries should improve sporting pitch to avoid the draw mostly. But Pakistan-India ODI series is best compared to England-OZ ODI series.

The rivalry of Ashes and Pak-Indo are always best to watch. Nevertheless, expectation a lot from public, pressure from politics, and tense situation is what we recall; is none than Pakistan-India series. I am not sure about now. There was a time that Losing was not an option between Pakistan-India. I surely miss that feeling in 80's and 90's.

the best rivalry in cricket is definitely West Indies vs Australia for last 30 yrs....no other rivalry has produced so many great matches and moments then Australia vs West Indies...although recently its been all one way traffic but still west indies was able to pull off record run chase in tests

Originally Posted by pakman927

the best rivalry in cricket is definitely West Indies vs Australia for last 30 yrs....no other rivalry has produced so many great matches and moments then Australia vs West Indies...although recently its been all one way traffic but still west indies was able to pull off record run chase in tests

My favorite was the one where Lara had to play with the tail to successfully chase down the target. Classic.

Originally Posted by pindi_express

My favorite was the one where Lara had to play with the tail to successfully chase down the target. Classic.

yup Lara played tons of memorable innings against Australia....its his innings against Australia that make him stand out but there was also the match in 96 where Bevan performed a miracle and off course 96 quarter final was unforgettable as well