Ton has more weight

How do you define century on debut? Imagine someone is selected as a No. 6 batsman and in his first Test, the first five batsmen rattle up a huge score and the innings is declared. The team wins by an innings and, hence, no second innings. So he does not bat at all. In the next Test, he scores a century. Is this a century on debut? Wisden, with whom I raised this query, has said no. But if this is correct, then are centuries scored in the second innings of a debut Test logically a century on debut? After all, he has already batted in the first innings. Next, how to count centuries. Today, double and triple hundreds are counted as one century although they are far more difficult to score. Ask Tendulkar himself. If double centuries are counted as two centuries and triple as three, then the order of batsmen may change.

In the entire history of Test cricket, there have been about 2,000 centuries, 200 double centuries and about 20 triple centuries. Thus, it is 10 times more difficult to score a double century and 100 times more difficult to score a triple century. If these weights were used, the order of batsmen will change dramatically. Bradman, I think, will still be on top. When we claim that some Nobel prize winners were Indians, why not give Ranji and Pataudi their due?

T R Ramaswami,
Mumbai, July 30