ODI rankings T20 rankings 1st February 2012 1st January 2012 1st November 2011 1st October 2011 1st August 2011 1st July 2011 30th April 2011 1st April 2011 1st February 2011 1st January 2011 1st November 2010 1st November 2010 1st August 2010 M 1st May 2006

Alistair Gordon's Ranking method This World Rankings table takes into account not only the results of games played by countries but also the strength of opposition, margin of victory/defeat, importance of game and how recently it was played, thus making my tables as accurate an indicator of teams strengths as possible (though in the cases where only a handful of games have been played such rankings can only be an estimate). P - GAMES PLAYED = Games with a minimum of 20 overs played in the last 4 years between teams in above tables, excluding games where there is doubt that ICC eligibility rules applied. World Cup and ICC Trophy Final counts treble whilst other World Cup matches, Champions Trophy final and ICC Trophy games counts as double. C - CUM SCORE = Points scored for 50 most recent games (or actual number of games played in last 4 years if less than 50). In order to establish an accurate way to give equal value to wins by runs as opposed to wickets, I added the total winning margins of all recent victories by runs and divided this figure by number of such games and came up with a figure of just under 65. I then did the same with the wins by teams that batted second and found that the average winning margin was 6 wickets. Using the above figures as a template, I was therefore able to come up with what I feel is an accurate reflection of the correlation between the 2 (rounding figures to the nearest 10 for ease of calculation). A WIN BY 10 WICKETS IS EQUIVALENT TO ONE BY 140 RUNS, 9 = 120, 8 = 100, 7 = 80, 6 = 60, 5 = 50, 4 = 40, 3 = 30, 2 = 20, 1 = 10 In cases where a team wins by 10 wickets with a huge number of overs left I first worked out a nominal score based on run rate at point of victory subject to a maximum score of 400 to avoid any statistical anomaly. (eg team A wins by 10 Wickets by scoring 100 – 0 in 20 overs, this is 5 an over which equals 250 in a full 50 over game. As team B scored 99, team A gets 151 points (250-99) but if figure is less than 140 then the full 140 score still applies). For defeats the same system applies and the losers get a minus score (eg. Team A beats Team B by 79 runs so Team A scores 79 & Team B minus 79). To ensure that teams get more points for beating good teams as opposed to mediocre ones they are also awarded their opponent's average at the time. So if, using previous example, Team A had an average of 100 and Team B an average of 90 prior to playing their game, Team A would score a total of 169 points (ie 90 + 79) whereas Team B would score 21 points (ie 100 – 79). Games played are then weighted so that games played this year count 5 times, last year 4, year before 3, etc. AVE. POINTS = Simply total points scored divided by number of games played as per above. To ensure that tables are as accurate as possible, games drop out of the calculations once a further 50 have been played or after 4 years in the case of teams playing fewer games. For more information on these rankings, email Alistair Gordon via cricket@blueyonder.co.uk

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