CMC – West Indies’ loss to England in their five-match One-Day International series on Friday did them no favours, as they remained stagnant in eighth spot in the ICC one-day rankings.
The regional side, who went down by 26 runs in the final match in St Lucia to surrender the series 3-2, were still bottom of all the major Test playing nations in the rankings released by cricket’s world governing body on Saturday.
West Indies have 92 points and are still some distance behind seventh placed Sri Lanka who have 105 points, as Australia continued to lead the rankings after a comprehensive win over nearest challengers South Africa in the first ODI of their five-match series in Durban Friday.
Seemingly on course to make a clean sweep of the tour after winning the preceding Test series, West Indies lost the last two matches of the series to give England a morale boosting victory.
With the series win, England have now closed their gap on fifth placed Pakistan to just three points, as they moved to 108 points.
The Windies’ loss has also cost their key batsmen a chance to make progress in the players’ rankings.
Captain Chris Gayle and the reliable Shivnarine Chanderpaul have remained third and fourth in the rankings respectively, while Ramnaresh Sarwan was tied for 15th with South African Herschelle Gibbs after dropping one place.
England batting star Kevin Pietersen’s average form in the series has also cost him dearly, as he has dropped five places in the rankings to 13th.
India’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni has maintained his lead with Australian Mike Hussey unchanged in second.
In the bowlers’ rankings, the highest placed West Indian is fast bowler Jerome Taylor who was ruled out of the ODI series through injury. He is 14th after having dipped four places.
Sri Lankan fast bowler Nuwan Kulasekara has remained the leading ODI bowler.
