Jayasuriya, who won the top award last year, has gained a total of 120 points after his two successive half centuries in the Standard Bank Triangular series now being played in South Africa.
Former Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar has once again climbed to the second spot after his explosive century against Australia in a three-nation tournament match in Kanpur on Tuesday.
Tendulkar has gained a total of 97 points to displace Sri Lankan off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan from the second place.
Muralitharan has now gone down to third place with 94 points. In fourth place is Australian leg spinner Shane Warne (89 points), followed by Indian skipper Mohammed Azharuddin (86) and Sri Lanka vice captain Aravinda de Silva (83).
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has gone down to the fourth place in the latest CEAT International cricket team of the year world rankings. Sri Lanka, after their successive Test defeats against South Africa and two early losses in the Tri-Series one day tournament, have gained only 60 points.
Australia, despite losing the recent Test series to India 1-2, maintain the top place with 77 points, followed by Pakistan (70 points) and South Africa (63 points).
India is placed behind Sri Lanka and the fifth place with 49 points, followed by New Zealand & England (in joint sixth place with 43 points), West Indies (34 points) and Zimbabwe (20).
The CEAT World rankings, based on both Tests and one day internationals, were released locally by R.S. Hartley and Company.