By Mercenary
January 23 2004

Merc gives us some statistics to digest and debate, as he gives us the win percentages from January 2000 onwards, split by year, followed by a short summary about each team's progress. I’ve compiled ODI ranking tables for this millennium so far, the tables show each teams position at the start of the millennium and then their progress until 2004. Hopefully it should give us an indication of where each team stands and where it’s headed. Where two teams have the same figures the team ranked higher in the previous table will still be ranked higher...


since Jan 2000

78% - Australia
65% - South Africa
60% - Sri Lanka
58% - Pakistan
54% - India
49% - England
46% - West Indies
42% - New Zealand
28% - Zimbabwe
00% - Bangladesh


since Jan 2001

80% - Australia
65% - South Africa
62% - Pakistan
57% - India
56% - Sri Lanka
49% - West Indies
48% - England
42% - New Zealand
28% - Zimbabwe
00% - Bangladesh


since Jan 2002

79% - Australia
61% - Pakistan
60% - South Africa
60% - India
54% - West Indies
51% - Sri Lanka
51% - England
44% - New Zealand
28% - Zimbabwe
00% - Bangladesh


since Jan 2003

85% - Australia
61% - South Africa
61% - India
59% - Pakistan
54% - England
52% - Sri Lanka
50% - West Indies
48% - New Zealand
28% - Zimbabwe
00% - Bangladesh

...below is a short synopsis of each team's progress so far this millennium, they will be listed in the order shown in the latest table...

Australia - Even with some of their best players missing the Aussies are still undoubtedly the number 1 ODI side in the world, they aren’t a human team with normal vulnerabilities, the Aussie ODI team is a well-oiled machine that bulldozes through any opposition, any time and anywhere. They began the millennium with a 13% lead over the number 2 ranked side and in true juggernaut fashion they've now extended that lead to a staggering 24%.

Whilst there is little to separate the chasing pack from positions 2-4, the Aussies are still (and will remain for quite some time yet) head and shoulders above any other ODI side. They flaunted their superiority in this form of the game by winning a second consecutive WC where they made their co-finalists look like they were a local pub team just as they did previously in the WC 99 final.


South Africa - If people were asked at the turn of the millennium which other team had the best chance of overtaking Australia in the coming years, the unanimous reply would have been South Africa. Indeed during the 99 WC semi-final the two sides fought down to the wire and many would still say that if the SA dressing room knew how to count they would have been in that WC 99 final. However South Africa haven’t delivered on the promise shown in the past and rather than pulling away from the chasing pack they have now joined it.

They began the millennium with a lead of 5% over the 3rd ranked team and are currently joint 2nd with India. They now only lead the current 3rd ranked team by 2% and have stood by and watched as Australia increased their lead by an incredible 11% in the last 4 years. SA's status as an ODI superpower seems to be waning, their second place is already under attack from a resurgent England, a rebuilt Pakistan and an India that genuinely believes it’s the second best ODI side in the world. South Africa will have to show a lot of grit and determination to hold onto that number 2 ranking in ODI's, looks like there are exciting times ahead in the world of ODI cricket.


India - This team has come a long, long way since the turn of the millennium, in the 99 WC they barely made a mark but in WC 03 they ended up in the final vs Australia! Australia proved to be too strong for the Indians in that particular match but the boys in light blue had announced their arrival among the top teams in ODI cricket! They started the millennium in 5th place touching the bottom half of the table but over the next 4 years they began to climb their way up the table from 5th, to 4th, to joint 3rd and now on the back of a strong showing in WC 03 they are joint 2nd on current form.

Their next task is to break free from the chasing pack and to close down the lead on Australia, the Indians already have the batsmen to match the Australians but they need to hone their bowling attack till it can cut through the strongest batting line-ups. If they can manage to find the right bowlers they may be able to challenge for the top spot in the coming years. In Pathan and Zaheer they have an opening bowling attack with the potential to mature into something quite special, only time will tell whether or not the Indians are good enough to stick it out in the unfamiliar territory at the top of the table!!!


Pakistan – They began the millennium as runner-ups in the WC 99 final where they had a strong showing during the tournament but they crumbled under the pressure of the big stage, tamely standing by as Australia cruised off with the trophy. Despite the Pakistan team being widely regarded as unpredictable, combustible and fractitious they have always been in the running for the top 3 spots. They went into 2000 in fourth place and then climbed to 3rd, moving up to 2nd before crashing back down to fourth. They were touted as being the favourites for WC 03 along with Australia and South Africa but like SA they didn’t even get past the group stage!

Unlike other teams Pakistan doesn’t traditionally rely on teamwork, astute captaincy (except under Imran) or clinical play. The Pakistani’s know only one way to win a match and that’s through individual brilliance, you’d be hard put to name another team with such a collection match winners. Top order collapses are the order of the day with Pakistan, in fact if you don’t see a top order collapse then you’d wonder if it really was the Pakistani team you were watching. Luckily they have lower order swashbucklers like Razzaq, Malik, Moin, Azhar and even occasionally a cameo by Akthar who can wield the willow to devastating effect. They regularly get close to 100 runs in the last 10 overs and the Pakistani lower order almost always perform under pressure.

The bowling can be awe-inspiring one day and unbelievably ordinary on another, Pakistan are the only team in the last 20 years to be consistently churning out world class quicks like Imran, Waqar, Wasim, Shoaib, Sami and Zahid amongst others. Their recent drop down the table can be attributed to the fact that they are in a rebuilding stage and of course also because of their terrible showing in WC 03. Post-WC they dropped 8 of their biggest names and created a new team almost from scratch, which went onto win a tournament in Sharjah and reach the final of another one in Sri Lanka. Some of the discarded names are beginning to trickle back into the line-up but the excellent performances by their replacements will make it hard to justify their re-inclusion! 4th position for a team that’s spent the last year re-building is not to be sniffed at and it’s only a matter of time before these Tigers launch another assault on the top 3 positions!!!


England – The England team began the millennium in 6th position leading the bottom half of the table, some would say their poor showing is due to them persisting with older players who were often past it physically in the ODI arena. England traditionally seems to be a little allergic to showing faith in youth and prefer to go with ‘tried and tested’ players who have been performing well in the county circuit. However with the emergence of players like Jones, Harmison, Anderson and the dropping of old legs like Nasser and Stewart, the England side seems to be on the rise.

Following an initial drop in the table from 6th to 7th earlier in the millennium, they have since then steadily been rising from 7th, back to 6th and now all the way up into the top half of the table to the 5th position. In 2003 they beat SA and Pakistan in ODI series wins, in fact if you look only at ODI results post-WC 03 England are in 2nd place by a large margin over the 3rd placed team. If they can continue this sort of form into 2004 and build on it over the next few years, they could very well go into WC 07 as one of the genuine favourites!!


West Indies – These days they are often called a one-man team but once upon a time the West Indies were the undisputed kings of the cricketing world. But following that golden age of Windian cricket they seem to have been rebuilding since time immemorial and are yet to even reach a shadow of a shadow of a shadow of their former selves. They began the millennium in 7th position, moving up through 6th to the lofty heights of 5th position before tumbling back down to 7th again.

Apart from 3 victories against an Australian team that had already won the series, they have done nothing of any real importance in the recent past. Their next series will be at home to an England ODI team that has already steam-rolled the SA’s and the Pakistani’s in the ODI arena, if the WI’s want to be competitive they are going to have to play all out to keep this England team at bay. However with the emergence of quicks like Fidel Edwards and other talented young players, the Windies might just fancy their chances at home against a young English side that’s still going about the process of building its reputation as a contender in the world of the ODI.


New Zealand – This is a team that began the millennium in 8th position as an ODI side and are the only team apart from Australia, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh to maintain the same position throughout the last 4 years. After reaching the semi-finals of WC 03 they found themselves catapulted up the ICC rankings and ended up holding an artificially high 3rd position, they’ve now sunk back down on the ICC table. Poor showings versus Australia (losing 4-0) and Sri Lanka (losing 2-1) have kept them low in the latest table shown above but they are a better side than the table indicates.

They recently beat Pakistan 4-1 in NZ and with the return of Bond and Astle they may well begin a steady climb up the table. They seem to believe their main strength is the all round capabilities of the majority of their players but perhaps they would do better if they concentrated on specialist players rather than bits and pieces men. Vettori’s bowling has been abysmal of late and I don’t feel his usefulness with the bat outweighs the usefulness of a specialist ‘in—form’ spinner. If NZ want to seriously be seen as contenders then they need to persist with more specialist players like Bond and perhaps Butler!


Zimbabwe – A team that is seem as the whipping boys for the top 8, they can only be glad that Bangladesh has been given test status because that lifts them off the bottom of the table. The have consistently maintained 9th position in the table since the last millennium, given their volatile political situation at home they are unlikely to improve their ranking any time soon!


Bangladesh – Still to win a match this millennium, they’ve even failed to beat Kenya and Canada. Things don’t look like improving for the Deshi’s but then they are still a relatively young side in the cricketing world and have only had Test status for the last 4 years. Very few teams have burst onto the scene and climbed up the table quickly, I think it’s unfair of us to expect Bangladesh to work miracles but hopefully given some time they can improve!