Cricbeat

Pakistan has won two ODIs against West Indies and will take on the West Indies in 3rd ODI today in Bridgetown. If Pakistan wins today, it will be their second consecutive bilateral ODI series win as they beat New Zealand by 3-2 in February 2011. Pakistan is eying a clean sweep against West Indies.

Most bizarre thing is even if Pakistan beat the West Indies by 5-0 it will not improve Pakistan’s ODI Rankings as Pakistan will earn only 1 point, and victories in next 3 games will not give any Rating to Pakistan. Currently Pakistan is at number 6 with Ratings of 104, though at start of series Pakistan had 103, whereas West Indies is at number 9 with ratings of 67. There is difference of 37 between Ratings of Pakistan and West Indies. According to ICC’s Rankings System if difference – between Ratings – is large then the victory by better team won’t earn them much significance.  West Indies is listed, in ICC Rankings, even below than Bangladesh.

“I can’t understand this system,” Shahid Afridi told Pakistan’s media from Bridgetown. “There should be some advantage for the visiting sides as winning a series is never easy for them no matter who they’re playing against. It’s really difficult to prosper under the current rankings system. I have little clue what it’s based on”


Even if Pakistan win series by 3-2 or 4-1, it will dwindle Pakistan’s Ratings. Victory by 3-2 means Pakistan will lose 4 Ratings whereas victory by 4-1 means Pakistan will lose 2 Ratings.

Pakistan’s next ODI series is against Ireland. Pakistan is scheduled to play two ODIs against Ireland at end of May. If Pakistan win this is series by 2-0, it will earn only 1 rating to Pakistan. This means Pakistan will get only 2 rating even if they win 7 consecutive ODIs.

Its not the first time that a captain of some team has criticized ICC Rankings System. Kumar Sangakara, former Sri Lanka Captain, also raised concerns on ICC Rankings System when India became number 1 Test playing nation. “India hasn’t won an away series in Australia, England, South Africa and Sri Lanka in last few years then how can they be given Number One status”, that was said by Sangakara when India became number one in ICC Test Rankings.