RUGBY
CRICKET
What a fantastic achievement. South Africa is currently the number one country in Test Cricket Ranking and the Rugby Union Rankings. What a sight! What an achievement and what a time to do it.
Coupled with Caster Semenya’s victory and the 2010 World Cup coming to SA, the Gautrain and tourism pumping, South Africa is looking good right now I’d say!
As of Monday 24 August, South Africa is top of the world Test cricket rankings (by virtue of England beating Australia). Not only that, we’re also top of the world One-Day International cricket ranking as well as being the number one ranked Rugby Union country in the world. So we are top of both the cricket and rugby rankings at the same time!
I cannot remember when any country last managed this feat. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that it MAY have been Australia in 1999, because they won the Rugby World Cup that year and have been top of the cricket rankings for about the last 15 years or so. England topped the rugby rankings briefly in 2003 but they’ve not been number one at cricket for many years now. New Zealand have regularly been rugby’s number one, but never in history have they enjoyed this status at cricket. Even Australia’s feat in 1999 may not match what we’ve done, because winning the Rugby World Cup does not automatically make you the number one team (although it obviously helps a lot).
All we need now is for Soccer to follow suit …
Thanks to Paul for his nudge, reminder and research! Good work.
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