Scotland top of the pile

ICC World Cricket League Division 1 finalist Scotland have established themselves at the top of the ICC Associate ODI Rankings.

With Kenya represented in the main LG ICC ODI Championship table, the ICC Associate ODI Rankings feature the next five sides in the world, all of whom play matches with ODI status.

Scotland lost to Kenya in the final of the WCL Div. 1 in Nairobi last week but had already beaten the Netherlands, Canada and Ireland in the tournament.

In the qualifying matches against other Associates, Scotland can currently boast a 69 per cent win rate, compared to 50 per cent from next best team, the Netherlands.

Ireland finds itself in third place with a 44 per cent win rate after a relatively disappointing event for one of the pre-tournament favourites. Canada is fourth with 33 per cent and Bermuda fifth with 28 per cent.

Currently, the ICC Associates ODI Rankings does not include Kenya and it will continue to appear on the main LG ICC ODI Championship until 2009.

Any ODIs played between Kenya and any of the other five top Associates will therefore have no rating impact on Kenya itself but will still count towards the others’ ranking.

These are still the early stages of the ICC Associate ODI Rankings. Following the ICC Trophy in 2005, ODI status was granted to matches involving the teams that came in the top five (Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Bermuda and the Netherlands) as part of their preparation for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007.

Once an Associate has played at least 10 matches in total, it has the opportunity to be promoted to the main LG ICC ODI Championship table (currently comprising the ten ICC Full Members plus Kenya).

To gain this promotion, the Associate must either achieve two wins against Full Members or achieve one win against a Full Member and also have won more than 60 per cent of its matches against other Associates on the rankings table.

The Associate would then have a ranking on the main table, initially based on its results in all ODIs played against any of the 11 existing rated teams, i.e. the ten Full Members and Kenya, during the qualifying period.

Then, to progress to a rating, it would need to have played at least eight ODIs (over the previous two to three year period, updated every August) against teams who, at the time, were also rated on the LG ICC ODI Championship table.

Meanwhile, host team Kenya won the WCL Div. 1 and as a result many of its players are well represented in the LG ICC ODI Player Rankings.

Thomas Odoyo is the only Associate player to feature in the top 20 of any category. The 28-year-old is currently ranked 17th in the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders.

Primarily a fast bowler, Odoyo showed during the WCL Div. 1 that he can bat too, most memorably when he scored an unbeaten 61 and shared a winning tenth-wicket stand of 55 with Hiren Varaiya to beat Ireland in a thriller at Ruaraka.

Odoyo is also currently in 36th place in the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers, just behind his team-mate Peter Ongondo, who is in 33rd position and is the highest ranked Associate bowler in the world.

Kenya captain Steve Tikolo is currently in 63rd position while Kenya spinner Varaiya is in 85th spot, giving the east African team four bowlers ranked above anyone else in the Associate world.

The others are closing fast, however. Bermuda’s Dwayne Leverock is in 88th position while John Davison of Canada is 95th, Tim de Leede of the Netherlands is in 97th place and Scotland’s Craig Wright is 102nd.

Tikolo is the top Associate batsman according to the latest LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen in 63rd place although he is closely followed by team-mate Tanmay Mishra in 67th spot and Ryan ten Doeschate of the Netherlands in 72nd place.

For more information go to: ICC - associates