By defeating the West Indies in 1995 in the Caribbean, Australia emerged as the unofficial world champions in Test cricket. Now, India has beaten Australia in the New Delhi one-off Test match - so does that make us the world champions?

This proposition, on the face of it, sounds absurd. Carrying that logic a bit further, England can then argue that as they beat India earlier this summer, they are the true world champions. And Pakistan will chip in to point out that it had beaten England 2-0 later this season, so they are the true world champions.

International rankings have been providing me lots of quiet amusement of late. A recent 'listing' had West Indies keeperbatsman Courtney Browne listed as world number three! So if a patriotic Indian claims, on the basis of his team's win in the one-off Test against Australia, that his team is the world champion in Test cricket, it's not too laughable, really - definitely not more funny than say Browne being ranked the third best batsman in the world.

But the fact remains that any such claim by India is silly. A victory in New Delhi confirmed, yet again, that we are heroes at home, without in any way dispelling the concomittant feeling that we are still zeores abroad.

Australia, coming into a Test match situation after nine months of non stop one day cricket, was caught mentally unprepared for the rigours of playing out the grinding kind of innings needed on a track that turned from day one, and from the very first ball a win for India seemed inevitable.

It is really not cricket when designer pitches are made to suit local conditions. India is the worst offender in this regard, always preparing pitches to suit its spinners. International cricket convention holds that the host country has the privilege to prepare wickets as it deems best, but India has over the last decade or so abused this privilege.

Cricket fanatics will argue that such tactics are practised in, and by, all cricket-playing nations. This is not true. Take the example of Australia. Only Perth and to a lesser extent, Brisbane, provide fast, bouncy pitches. Sydney has become a spinner's paradise, while Melbourne and Adelaide provide flat surfaces which favour the batsmen.

A genuine cricket lover would rather watch batsmen like Saeed Anwar, Mark Waugh, Brian Lara or Sachin Tendulkar in full flow rather than watch batsmen struggle from day one and thrust their pads to keep the balls away from the wicket.

Gone are the days when the wickets in the Caribbean were hard and bouncy. When he was captain of the victorious West Indian teams, Viv Richards often blasted the groundsmen for not providing pace-oriented wickets to help the home bowlers. In fact, the Trinidad Oval, which was often the venue of two Test matches in a series, helped the spinners! The surface at Bridgetown, Barbados, is no longer the dream wicket for a pace bowler. It had slowed down considerably, and it was here that the Aussies overwhelmed the home team in the first Test of the 1995 series.

The English pitches are also becoming flatter and flatter. Till recently, Headingly was as seamer's paradise. But today, Headingly offered a wicket which was as flat as the one in Faisalabad. Pakistan drew with England in a high scoring match. The Ken- nington Oval used to have lots of bounce, but in the recent series, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis had to rely on their mastery over reverse swing to humble England.

But India continues to be the exception. The ball turns square from day one. The surface is powdery and under-prepared. Visiting batsmen who had never played on such surfaces had no clue to handle our spinners. Thus teams captained by Graham Gooch, David Houghton and Lee Germon perished before the wiles of Anil Kumble and company, and Mark Taylor's men were no exception.

I think the Indian cricket authorities are killing the game by preparing pitches like the one at Kotla. They give the home side an unfair advantage and distort the very spirit of the game. Test matches should be played on hard, fast true surfaces with even bounce where the ball will turn from day three or day four. They will offer equal challenges to the bowlers and the batsmen, last the entire duration of five days and lead to challenging finishes. The fast bowlers will not rendered anachronisms and the spin bowlers will not be given the ball from the tenth over or so.

So long as India prepares such pitches and registers wins at home, it is foolish to blow our own trumpets. These victories are meaningless. It is acknowledged that victories in away series are the ones which really count.

The West Indies reigned supreme for nearly 20 years, and barring New Zealand, won all their away series. This was real championship stuff. In 1994-1995, Courtney Walsh's men almost lost a series in India, but finding some bounce in the Mohali wicket, they destroyed the cream of the Indian batting. This was bound to happen because most of our batsmen had been rendered slow turner experts who could not handle a bit of bounce. They will continue to remain so, till the quality of pitches improved in the days to come.