Sri Lanka has a great chance of improving ICC rankings if they make
a clean sweep
Chris DHAMBARAGE
CRICKET: Sri Lanka are in with a great chance of improving their
International Cricket Council (ICC) one-day rankings if they could make
a clean sweep during their five match one-day international series
against England which begins at the Rangiri Dambulla International
Stadium on Monday.
Sri Lanka who are currently placed fourth in the latest points table
could leapfrog New Zealand into third place if they could produce a
repeat performance of the 2006 series in England.
However, if England wins every contest they will move ahead of
Mahela Jayawardena’s team in the rankings.
The odds are of course heavily against the Englishmen who have never
won a one-day international series in Sri Lanka.
England who recorded an impressive 4-3 series victory in their
previous outing against India in August/September could drop back to
eighth place even below the West Indies with a 1-4 or 0-5 series loss
but they could also swap places with Sri Lanka if they emerge victorious
by a 4-1 margin.
In the individual one-day rankings Sri Lanka’s dashing opener Sanath
Jayasuriya who is currently placed 17th will be hoping to improve his
place in the batting ratings. He is just ahead of his captain Mahela
Jayawardena (20th) and wicket keeper batsman Kumar Sangakkara (23rd).
Jayasuriya could also consolidate his position in the ICC rankings
for top all-rounders having reached the fourth place with a total of 368
points. Another good all-round performance from him could easily put him
in the second place of the list while pushing South African Jacques
Kallis and England’s Andrew Flintoff.
In the ICC bowling rankings Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan will
miss out a good chance of making steady progress as the champion
off-spinner has been ruled out at least from the first three one-day
internationals against England.
In addition two other Sri Lankans Chaminda Vaas (4th) and Lasith
Malinga (9th) are among the top ten of the ICC bowling rankings which is
headed by South African Shaun Pollock.
The top five bowlers
Rank Player Team Points
1 Shaun Pollock SA 874
2 Nathan Bracken Aus 794
3 Shane Bond NZ 790
4 Chaminda Vaas SL 741
5 M. Muralitharan SL 730
The top five all-rounders
Rank Player Team Points
1 Shaun Pollock SA 473
2 Andrew Flintoff Eng 372
3 Jacques Kallis SA 370
4 S.T.Jayasuriya SL 368
5 Chris Gayle WI 366
Rank Team Rating
1 Australia 129
2 South Africa 124
3 New Zealand 114
4 Sri Lanka 111
5 Pakistan 108
6 India 108
7 England 105
8 West Indies 102
9 Bangladesh 48
10 Ireland 28
11 Zimbabwe 17
12 Kenya 0
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