How the rankings work?

ICC Test rankings

Test Updates:
Sep 27, 2002
Jul 3, 2002
Jun 18, 2002
Jun 4, 2002
May 16, 2002
Apr 5, 2002
Mar 20, 2002
Mar 14, 2002
Mar 4, 2002
Feb 12, 2002
Jan 18, 2002
Jan 11, 2002
Dec 23, 2001
Dec 5, 2001
Nov 30, 2001

ODI Updates:
Sep 9, 2002
Aug 28, 2002
Jul 15, 2002
Jul 3, 2002
Jun 18, 2002
Jun 3, 2002
May 16, 2002
Apr 25, 2002
Apr 10, 2002
Mar 20, 2002
Mar 5, 2002
Feb 20, 2002
Feb 9, 2002
Feb 5, 2002
Jan 14, 2002

Pakistan slipping badly

The 3-0 defeat in their "home" series against Australia has hurt Pakistan considerably. They drop to the sixth place, exchanging places with India.

India therefore find themselves at the fifth position for the first time since we introduced the Rediff test ratings about a year ago. India's index (40.80) will climb marginally when we publish our update after the Kolkata test; but not by much (at best up to 41.44) because defeating West Indies when they are "away" is currently the easiest possible test victory (the WI "away" weight is a dismal 0.167 at the moment -- even defeating Zimbabwe is a little more "valuable" with their "away" weight of about 0.200).

India's real test will be in New Zealand. Gains in that series would be worth much more (although it is to be only a two-match series). India fans will also be watching Pakistan and Sri Lanka's forthcoming series in South Africa; a good showing in South Africa constitutes a wonderful opportunity for any touring team. England too have great opportunities to regain the third place after their Ashes series (the hardest possible test victory is against Australia in Australia; such wins currently have a "weight" of 0.880. even a draw has a "weight" of 0.440!).

The current (as on Oct 22, 2002) home-away point tally of test playing teams is shown, below, in Table A.
-- How the rankings work...

TABLE A: Test Score Card (as on Oct 22, 2002)

		A W A Y
		Aus	Eng	Ind	NZ	Pak	RSA	SL	WI	Zim
H O M E	Australia		4 / 5 3.5 / 5	1 / 3 3 / 3	3 / 3 1.5 / 3	3 / 3 3 / 3	2 / 3 3 / 3	1 / 3 3 / 3	2 / 4 5 / 5	1 / 1 -
	England	1.5 / 5 1 / 5		1 / 3 2 / 4	1.5 / 3 1.5 / 4	2 / 3 1 / 2	2 / 5 3 / 5	2 / 3 2.5 / 3	2 / 6 3.5 / 5	1 / 2 1.5 / 2
	India	0 / 3 2 / 3	2 / 4 2 / 3		1 / 3 2 / 3	2 / 4 1 / 3	0.5 / 2 0 / 2	1 / 3 1.5 / 3	2 / 5 1.5 / 3	1 / 2 2 / 2
	New Zealand	1.5 / 3 0 / 3	2.5 / 4 1.5 / 3	1 / 3 2 / 3		0 / 1 1.5 / 3	0.5 / 3 1 / 3	1 / 3 2 / 2	1.5 / 2 2 / 2	2 / 2 0.5 / 1
	Pakistan	0 / 3 0 / 3	1 / 2 1 / 3	2 / 3 2 / 4	1.5 / 3 1 / 1		1 / 2 1 / 3	2.5 / 3 1 / 4	1 / 3 2 / 2	1.5 / 2 1 / 3
	South Africa	0 / 3 1 / 3	2 / 5 3 / 5	2 / 2 1.5 / 2	2 / 3 2.5 / 3	2 / 3 1 / 2		1.5 / 3 2.5 / 3	3 / 5 5 / 5	1 / 1 2 / 2
	Sri Lanka	0 / 3 2 / 3	0.5 / 3 1 / 3	1.5 / 3 2 / 3	0 / 2 2 / 3	3 / 4 0.5 / 3	0.5 / 3 1.5 / 3		0.5 / 2 3 / 3	2 / 3 3 / 3
	West Indies	0 / 5 2 / 4	1.5 / 5 4 / 6	1.5 / 3 3 / 5	0 / 2 0.5 / 2	0 / 2 2 / 3	0 / 5 2 / 5	0 / 3 1.5 / 2		1.5 / 2 2 / 2
	Zimbabwe	- 0 / 1	0.5 / 2 1 / 2	0 / 2 1 / 2	0.5 / 1 0 / 2	2 / 3 0.5 / 2	0 / 2 0 / 1	0 / 3 1 / 3	0 / 2 0.5 / 2

We reproduce, after a long time, our home-away weights table (Table D) for all test-playing countries.

TABLE D: Home-Away Weights (as on Oct 22, 2002)

Country	Home weight	Away weight	Difference
Australia	0.880	0.680	0.200
South Africa	0.740	0.540	0.200
New Zealand	0.525	0.476	0.049
England	0.533	0.433	0.100
India	0.545	0.365	0.180
Pakistan	0.391	0.500	-0.109
Sri Lanka	0.625	0.348	0.277
West Indies	0.586	0.167	0.419
Zimbabwe	0.267	0.200	0.067

Table D shows that every team -- except Pakistan! -- play better at home. Australia and South Africa are very hard to beat at home and play very well away too. West Indies, Sri Lanka and India seem capable of winning consistently only at home; with West Indies in particular being incapable of winning (or even drawing) anything away (look at that difference of 0.419!). New Zealand and England, although better at home, manage to win a bit away as well. Zimbabwe play badly both away and at home.

The current ranking table, Table F, appears below.

TABLE F: Final Rankings (as on Oct 22, 2002)

Country	Performance index (RBI)	Rank	Difference 11.9.02 to 22.10.02
Australia	76.42	1	+1.79
South Africa	56.47	2	-0.17
New Zealand	47.05	3	+0.02
England	46.29	4	-0.14
India	40.80	5	-0.01
Pakistan	40.27	6	-3.17
Sri Lanka	39.53	7	-0.20
West Indies	33.53	8	+0.29
Zimbabwe	17.86	9	-0.55

Finally, with India already 2-0 ahead, we present (Table G) the possible scenarios after the Kolkata test; we're assuming that West Indies can at best draw their final test against India.

TABLE G: INDIA VS WEST INDIES: PROBABLE SCENARIOS

Points break-up (1 point for win, 0.5 for draw, 0 for loss)	Ind's new index (RBI)	WI's new index (RBI)
Ind: 2.5, WI: 0.5 [India win series 2-0]	41.31	31.50
Ind: 3, WI: 0 [India win series 3-0]	41.44	30.37

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