Sri Lanka go into this week's Test series with England on the back of a record run of nine consecutive Test match victories achieved against five different opponents, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, West Indies and Zimbabwe.

The run is Sri Lanka's best ever and now commands third place on the Test match roll of honour, behind Australia's all-time record of 16 straight wins and the 11 achieved by the West Indies.

The three match England v Sri Lanka series is a new fixture in the ICC Test Championship, as previous encounters in England have been restricted to single, one-off Tests (the Test Championship is based on series of two or more matches).

Going into the series the visitors occupy third place on the Championship table, behind Australia and South Africa and ahead of New Zealand and England.

A win for the home side would have the effect of dropping Sri Lanka to fourth place with a series points average of 1.07, marginally ahead of England in fifth place on 1.06. New Zealand would take third position by default, with its current points average of 1.13. A drawn series would leave England in fifth place but drop Sri Lanka into equal third position with New Zealand.

The current table does not include a result from the recent abandoned series between Pakistan and New Zealand, which Pakistan led 1-0 before the Karachi bombing. A decision on the final result of this series, and the awarding of Test Championship points, will be announced by ICC after further discussion with both Boards.

ICC Test Championship Table, 14th May 2002

Team          Played   Won   Lost   Drawn   Points  Average
Australia       13      9      2      2       20      1.54 
South Africa    16     11      3      2       24      1.50
Sri Lanka       14      7      5      2       16      1.14 
New Zealand     16      7      5      4       18      1.13 
England         15      6      6      3       15      1.00
West Indies     14      6      7      1       13      0.93 
Pakistan        16      4      7      5       13      0.81 
India           14      4      7      3       11      0.79 
Zimbabwe        16      3     11      2        8      0.50 
Bangladesh       4      0      4      0        0       -   

The series will be refereed by Gundappa Viswanath, with Venkat and Daryl Harper taking charge of umpiring duties for the Lord's and Edgbaston Tests. Steve Bucknor and Dave Orchard will take over at Old Trafford, a match that will mark Bucknor's 67th Test appearance, eclipsing Dickie Bird's previous record of 66 Test matches.

About the ICC Test Championship
Two points are allocated for winning a series and one for a drawn rubber. The result –and points allocation- of new series replace the previous equivalents.

At present, an average score per series (number of points won divided by number of series played) is used to identify the top side, because not all teams have played each other home and away. This transitional arrangement will change to a straight points system when all teams have played each other home and away, a situation due to be reached in 2005.

The Championship was introduced to add interest, context and excitement to the game at the highest level. It runs on a rolling league basis, with the system used for calculating positions based on the results of the most recent series (a minimum of two Test series applies), home and away, between each of the teams.

Media contact:

Mark Harrison
ICC Communications Manager
Tel: + 44 20 7266 7913
Mobile: + 44 (0) 787 944 1891
Email: mark.harrison@icc-cricket.com

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