Sri Lanka running out of time to avoid preliminary round of ICC Champions Trophy

CRICKET: Sri Lanka's failure to win all three ODIs in their series against Bangladesh means they are now well and truly running out of time to avoid playing in the preliminary round of this year's ICC Champions Trophy in India.

A 2-1 series success against Habibul Bashar's side secured some silverware but it did not earn Sri Lanka enough rating points to move above England and into the top six positions in the LG ICC ODI Championship table.

They now have just three more matches, against Pakistan next month, to achieve that placing and if they cannot then they will play off against the other sides in the bottom four positions of the table for the right to take part in the second round of the tournament.

But while the three matches in Bangladesh were not an unqualified success for Sri Lanka from a team perspective, there was still some individual success for them to savour as Kumar Sangakkara has surged into third place in the LG ICC ODI batting rankings.

The wicketkeeper-batsman, who made more runs - 182 - than any other player from either side in the series, has moved up two places and now has his best-ever haul of rating points.

And Sangakkara's excellent form, including 109 in the last match of the series in Chittagong, has drawn him level in that third position with India's Mahendra Singh Dhoni and only Australia's Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting are now above him.

It also means three of the top four players in that batting list are also wicketkeepers.

Atapattu is the only other Sri Lankan batsman in the top 20 - at 20th spot, down three places, after being rested for the series.

Sanath Jayasuriya is moving up the list again, heading up two places to joint 22nd, while Mahela Jayawardene, captain in Atapattu's absence in Bangladesh, is holding steady in 28th position.

Mohammad Ashraful is Bangladesh's highest-placed batsman in the LG ICC ODI batting rankings, in joint 57th place (along with Sri Lanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan), while further down the list is Aftab Ahmed, man of the match in Bangladesh's win, in 76th spot.

With the ball, Sri Lanka's rested duo of Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas both drop down two places each, to seventh and eighth places respectively in the LG ICC ODI Rankings for bowlers, a list that is led by South Africa's Shaun Pollock ahead of his country's ODI series with Australia.

Vaas's absence gave Farveez Maharoof the chance to impress and he took that chance with both hands, moving up 11 places to 35th in the list.

Ahead of him is Bangladesh's Mohammad Rafique who has moved up eight places to 27th position. The left-arm spinner is just short of his best-ever haul of rating points and is comfortably his country's highest-placed bowler in the list.

Below him is seamer Mashrafe bin Mortaza, up nine spots to 56th place and now with his highest-ever total of ratings points.

But while that ODI series in Bangladesh has finished, another two - between New Zealand and the West Indies and Zimbabwe and Kenya - are in full swing and South Africa and Australia are starting out on a series of their own.

All of those series have the potential to cause major changes in the LG ICC ODI Championship table over the next couple of weeks. New Zealand's success in the first three matches of their five-game series against Shivnarine Chanderpaul's side have lifted them into third place in the table, ahead of Pakistan, and if they keep winning and results in South Africa go their way they could soon be second behind Australia.

A 5-0 success for Stephen Fleming's line-up would lift them to 116 rating points and if Australia win their series against South Africa 4-1 that would be enough to drop the Proteas to 115 points and third in the table.

On a more positive note for South Africa, a 5-0 win for them would leave them just four points off the top of the table, lifting their rating to 124 and dropping Australia to 128. That is for future but in the present New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond has moved into the top five in the LG ICC Player Rankings for bowlers for the first time in his career.

Bond has fought back from a serious back injury to get to that position and by rising five places through the course of the first three matches against the West Indies he is now in fourth place with his best-ever haul of rating points.

It means New Zealand now have two bowlers in the top five places with left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori in fifth position.

The contrast with the West Indies' bowling resources is obvious. Left-arm seamer Ian Bradshaw has moved up seven places to 14th and has his best-ever haul of rating points but they have no other player in the top 25 in that bowling list. The Caribbean side are also without a player in the top ten positions in the batting list as well with Chris Gayle slipping down two spots to 11th. That leaves him just ahead of team-mate Ramnaresh Sarwan, up six places to 12th place.

New Zealand's highest-placed batsman is Fleming in 29th position but one spot behind him is Nathan Astle, now back in the top 30 for the first time for almost three years.

Kenya's ODIs in Zimbabwe are part of an increasing level of exposure for the High Performance Program countries ahead of next year's ICC Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean.

Kenya are yet to play enough matches to secure a ranking in the LG ICC ODI Championship table - that figure will be decided at the ICC's Executive Board meeting in March - but a good performance against Zimbabwe would have a positive impact on their rating.

India, as hosts, will automatically qualify for the second stage of next year's ICC Champions Trophy even if they are outside the top six of the LG ICC ODI Championship table on 1 April 2006. If they are outside that top six then the sixth-placed side in the table will take part in the preliminary round.

ICC ODI Championship after Bangladesh v Sri Lanka series

Position Team Ranking

1	Australia  	135
2   	South Africa  	116
3   	New Zealand 	114
4   	India    	113
5   	Pakistan   	112
6    	England   	108
7   	Sri Lanka   	107
8   	West Indies  	87
9   	Zimbabwe  	45
10    	Bangladesh  	17

[ICC media  release]