".....
I'm sure your teams will win more at home than they have in South Africa, don't forget that they will obviously be much shorter in price. Your healthy balance at the moment is essentially due to Ind, Pak and SL all coming up with an away Test win at juicy odds, so while the teams will almost certainly win more at home, I'm not sure that you'll win more money as a result. I think that Asian sides are overpriced away from the subcontinent (in Tests anyway, especially because the draw is always too short) but I'm not so sure that they are at home. I have no figures to back this up, but I suspect that if you'd backed England to level stakes on their last 2 tours to each of SL, Ind & Pak, then you'd come out ahead even though they only won 4 Tests out of 18. It could be that it's the underdog that is overpriced, regardless of whether or not the underdog is Asian (apart from when the West Indies are on tour, in which case no matter how bad you think they are, they always turn out to be worse).
In my opinion, entrenched viewpoints (e.g. Asian sides are hopeless outside Asia while non-Asian sides are hopeless inside it) still influence the market, even though the amount of cricket played nowadays means that players get used to different conditions earlier in their careers. I also said it would be a two edged sword and that it would happen with the Aussies losing their dominance this year, and with India , Lanka and
Pak nicely placed in 3rd , 4th and 5th in test ranging , it would be them and not the no2 side, England that would take over the mantle.
I cited that England were there as a result of a fixture cycle quirk and once they played all the
Asian sides and
Aussies again they would struggle. Well, since then, they have won one series in 5 and I think after this summer against
Windies and India, they will lose their no2 spot and leave the way clear for the
Asian sides to
challenge
Aussies over the
next year........"
