There is likely to be more movement at the top of the new ICC ODI Championship Table when South Africa and Pakistan go head to head in five One Day International matches starting in Durban on Sunday.

ICC ODI Championship Table (correct before completion of South Africa v Sri Lanka match on 6 December 2002 - table will be updated on www.icc.cricket.org)

 
Ranking    Team             Pld   Points  Rating
1          Australia         27    3465    128
2          South Africa      42    5134    122
3          Pakistan          37    4302    116
4          Sri Lanka         39    4477    115
5          India             38    3929    103
6          West Indies       31    3073     99
7          England           21    2014     96
8          New Zealand       31    2832     91
9          Zimbabwe          33    2169     66
10         Kenya             12     263     22
11         Bangladesh        15     146     10

South Africa's ODI series victory over Sri Lanka has strengthened their second place in the ICC ODI Championship Table and if results go their way in the first half of December, they could even overtake leaders Australia.

Pakistan marginally improved their position by virtue of a comfortable series win over Zimbabwe. A convincing series win will see Pakistan overhaul South Africa but a poor series would see them lose ground on the leaders.

"South Africa have benefited from a winning series against Sri Lanka but the nature of the new rankings system means that they will have to be similarly successful against Pakistan to hold on to second place in the table," said ICC General Manager - Cricket, David Richardson.

The ICC ODI Championship table is updated on the ICC website - www.icc.cricket.org - after every ODI match. There is also an interactive Predictor on the website which allows cricket fans to forecast the impact of future results.

The South Africa v Sri Lanka ODI series will be refereed by Clive Lloyd with Neil Mallender from the Emirates International Panel of Umpires standing in all five matches.

Fixtures:

Durban, December 8
Port Elizabeth, December 11
East London, December 13
Paarl, December 16
Cape Town, December 18

How the ICC ODI rankings work:

The formula used by the ICC to determine ranking positions takes into account the following factors:

- results from all ODI matches played over the previous two to three years
- strength of opposition, with greater reward for beating higher ranked opponents
- greater importance is placed on more recent results, with older matches dropped every 12 months
- all matches have equal status, with no account taken of venue or margin of victory

For the full formula visit www.icc.cricket.org.

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Mark Harrison	Jon Long
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