Out of form Lara tumbles down ICC rankings

The 36-year-old has fallen to 22nd in the LG ICC ODI Players’ Rankings, a drop of 14 places from his earlier position of eighth. Despite a productive Test series where he scored two centuries, Lara struggled with just 74 runs in five innings during the ODI series as the West Indies lost every game.

Ramnaresh Sarwan is the highest ranked West Indies player at fourth position in the standings but even he fell two places after the South African series. Left handed opener Chris Gayle is ranked 19th, a move of three places up the tables. Left armer Ian Bradshaw was the only West Indies bowler to move up in the top 100 rankings, climbing five places to 17th and is the only Windies bowler in the top 30.

Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, has achieved his best ever position in the LG ICC ODI Rankings, moving up to third place after South Africa’s series victory. Smith replaces fellow countryman Jacques Kallis as the current leading South African one-day batsman. Boeta Dippenaar, who had an outstanding series with 317 runs, is 15th, while Ashwell Prince climbed 12 places to 51st. In the bowling, Makhaya Ntini returned to the top ten, while Andre Nel climbed 20 places to 26th in the tables.

South Africa’s 5-0 drubbing of the West Indies in the just-concluded series also enabled them to climb back into the top four of the LG ICC ODI Championship for the first time since July 2004. The victory in the Caribbean boosted South Africa’s rating by five points to 112 after their ODI form had dipped in the months prior. West Indies went into the series only two points behind South Africa but the comprehensive defeat saw their rating fall to 98 points.