Chris Rattue: How number-crunchers ruin magic of sport

Australian cricket is planning to use world rankings to guide their selections. Picture / Rod Emmerson

After the IRB World Cup ranking farce, now Australian cricket may be getting in on the act

There are some things worth ranking, and others that should be left alone.

Not that they will be left alone. Sociologists led by the German Max Weber explained and predicted the rise of rationalisation - where numbers drive policy - and how this advances capitalism in modern society.

All sorts of things to treasure - tradition, instinct and the joy of the unexpected - are in danger of taking a tumble when the number-crunchers move in.

This turning of the human experience into an equation is ripe for manipulation, a manipulation that often involves advantages for those in powerful positions. Which brings us to the pitfalls and outright dangers of ranking systems in sport.

A good example lies with rugby, where the rankings are hardly worth the paper they are written on when you consider that sides such as Samoa, Tonga and Fiji rarely meet top-rated opponents, and when they do they are forced to play away from home.

The IRB uses this illegitimate system to help shaft these teams a second time by rigging the World Cup playing schedules against them. The IRB predetermines who it believes should advance to the final stages of the World Cup and does everything to ensure that happens, a method entirely related to making as much money as possible. The old boys' club gets all the advantages. The Rugby World Cup is colonialism by rationalisation.

Now comes the wonderful news - I'm not sure if it is confirmed - that Australian cricket is planning to use the world rankings to guide the selection of players for the test team. Under this plan, Australia would send out weaker teams against lower-ranked sides such as New Zealand in what is being touted as a formula for player rotation.

Oh, what joy. Those cricket rankings, for teams and players, are a load of nonsense. They have done nothing for cricket, apart from trivialising the great achievements and distracting people from the beauty of a game that is number-obsessed enough anyway.

There's no way of preventing selectors employing development selections but to actually formalise this process is a soul-destroying moment. If the rankings are going to be used like this, better to rip them up now.

Opening up time capsules
A friend emailed me this week with a simple line: "Isn't YouTube brilliant?"

Absolutely. From searching out old bands, to finding documentaries, to watching the best and worst and craziest that sport has to offer, YouTube is a cross between running your own TV station and opening up time capsules.

This week's viewing included the stunning double-act catch by the Central Districts cricketers Bevan Small and Michael Mason, and revisiting the soccer goal of 2011 by the Brazilian Neymar.

Among my favourites last year were two more from the world of soccer - a back-heeled penalty goal and another involving a penalty that spun into the net off the cross bar after the goalkeeper had run triumphantly away. YouTube is an absolute treasure trove.

Another friend rang to describe a vinyl record he discovered in a secondhand shop.

The year was 1963, and the recording is of a panel discussion at what the sleeve notes - written by the then Dominion sports editor Alex Veysey - describe as "an overflowing Wellington Town Hall concert chamber" where the New Zealand captain John Reid chaired a panel discussion involving five members of the touring MCC (English) side.

The five legends - Fred Trueman, Ken Barrington, Fred Titmus, Colin Cowdrey and the team's assistant manager, Alec Bedser - discussed techniques and attitudes at the heart of their games, information we take for granted now with former players dominating the commentary boxes.

The dear old cricket Almanack lists the MCC's team manager as the Duke of Norfolk. He's unlikely to have gone through an interview process for the job.