WCB launches ODI Team Standings

The new WCB T20I Team Standings table seems to have gone down well, so here is the WCB ODI Team Rankings, which have been worked out in a similar way. I dug out all the results for the last four years for the top 10 teams in world cricket at the moment - the eight that are taking part in the current ICC Women's Championship, plus Bangladesh and Ireland. I then applied this relatively simple formula:-

• 2 points for a win
• 1 point for a tie
• Bonus points based on team positions in the last World Cup in 2013, so if you beat a team you get the following bonus points :- Australia 10, West Indies 9, England 8, New Zealand 7, Sri Lanka 6, South Africa 5, India 4, Pakistan 3, Bangladesh 2, Ireland 1
  (this is just the starting point, and it will change from here on - see below).

As with the T20I table I decided that the recent games had to be given more weight, so I reduced the total number of points from games played over two years ago by half. It produced the following table.

Unsurprisingly Australia, with over an 80% win ratio, are top of the league, quite some way ahead of England. Surprisingly perhaps New Zealand (third in the T20 table) are only fifth in the ODI table, behind West Indies and India. It will be interesting to see if New Zealand can move themselves up the table with wins over Sri Lanka (worth five points each), and West Indies will look to consolidate their position in third with wins over Pakistan (worth six points each). But one loss will mean big points for Sri Lanka (8) and Pakistan (10) and obviously 0 points for New Zealand and West Indies from that game, which will reduce their average score.

The table will be updated after every ODI series - West Indies take on Pakistan starting Friday (four ODI series) and New Zealand host Sri Lanka in November (also a four ODI series) - but with bonus points allocated on current positions in the WCB ODI Team Standings as at the date the series starts. So for example beating West Indies will be worth eight points, and Pakistan four for the upcoming series. 

If you have any thoughts on this table or would like to see the spreadsheet in more detail then please let me know, either via the comments below (with your email address if you want the stats), or you can email me at WCB@lawdox.co.uk.

MD
15/X/15