Mahela Jayawardena of Sinhalese Sports Club raced to the top of the batting category in the Sri Lankan Domestic Ratings with scores of 137 and 99 in a valiant losing effort against Colombo Colts Cricket Club in the Final of the Premier Division 1 Super Tournament over the weekend. Jayawardena completed the season with the incredible average of 108, and had a total of 1,734 points in the rating, more than twice that of second placed Michael Vandort of CCC who had 849.40 points.

Chinthaka Jayasinghe of BRC was third with 768.89 points. Veteran Sri Lankan players Aravinda De Silva and Hashan Tillekeratne completed the top five with 767.78 and 767.50 points respectively. This is the final rating for the 2001/2002 season.

The rating for bowlers was a much closer contest, with SSC's Thilan Samaraweera finishing on top with 1,342.86 points, followed by Chamila Gamage of Air Force with 1,086 points. Upul Chandana of Tamil Union came in third with 1,065 points, Chaminda Vaas fourth with 1,000 points, and Ruchira Perera fifth with 960 points.

The ratings were compiled weekly by Cricinfo.com, a strategic partner of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka.

Players from Sri Lanka's National Team only began to make their presence felt in the final few weeks of the ratings,. In previous weeks, players who were involved with the national team were unable to participate in the Premier League due to international commitments, and were not rated.

The recently launched ratings, the first ever ratings system for domestic cricket in Sri Lanka, evaluated all players in the Premier League, weighting each individual performance according to the quality of opposition faced, to produce a meaningful barometer of performance. To qualify for the ratings, players must have played a minimum of four matches. Batsmen must then score a minimum number of runs and bowlers take a minimum number of wickets before they started to accumulate points.

Having achieved the above, players accrued points for each run scored and wicket taken. The number of points depended upon the stage of the tournament Qualifying, Plate and Super League - with more points being awarded for matches in the Super League than the Plate and Qualifying rounds. The ratings were updated weekly, to take into account the latest matches played.

The rating system was designed with input from the BCCSL Tournament Committee, Ranjan Madugalle and Ranjith Fernando, and is expected to evolve and improve in coming seasons.

CricInfo.com manages official websites for the International Cricket Council (ICC) and eight Test nations including Sri Lanka.
Top Ten Batsmen (week ending March 31, 2002)

Rank	Player	Club	Runs	Points
1	Mahela Jayawardene	SSC	867	1734.00
2	Michael Vandort	Tamil Union	434	849.40
3	Chinthaka Jayasingh	BRC	692	768.89
4	Aravinda de Silva	NCC	691	767.78
5	Hashan Tillekeratne	NCC	307	767.50
6	Chamara Silva	Panadura CC	481	760.33
7	Bhathiya Perera	Moors	895	727.08
8	Pradeep Hewage	NCC	657	652.86
9	Naveed Nawaz	NCC	642	642.00
10	Asela Jayasinghe	Ragama CC	606	627.75

Top Ten Bowlers (week ending March 31, 2002)

Rank	Player	Club	Wickets	Points
1	Thilan Samaraweera	SSC	47	1342.86
2	Chamila Gamage	Air Force	64	1086.00
3	Upul Chandana	Tamil Union	22	1065.00
4	Chaminda Vaas	Colts	25	1000.00
5	Ruchira Perera	SSC	24	960.00
6	Nisitha Rupasinghe	CCC	59	936.67
7	Kaushal Lokuarachchi	Bloomfield	42	895.56
8	Lasantha Malinga	Galle CC	27	853.33
9	Dammika Perera	Chilaw Marians	59	825.45
10	Randika Ranjith	Moors	49	788.33

The full lists can be viewed on the Internet at www.lankacricket.lk, the official home Sri Lanka cricket.

© BCCSL