WC2011

Reliance Mobile Test Championship

	Team	Matches	Points	Rating
1	South Africa	30	3672	122
2	Sri Lanka	24	2852	120
3	India	28	3327	119
4	Australia	25	3106	116
5	England	33	3258	105
6	Pakistan	17	1424	84
7	New Zealand	22	1794	80
8	West Indies	25	1910	76
9	Bangladesh	19	255	13

Sri Lanka eyes South Africa's number-one spot

Sri Lanka has narrowed the gap with number-one ranked South Africa to just two points in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship after winning the two-Test series against New Zealand in Colombo on Sunday.

Sri Lanka's 202 runs victory in the first Test at Galle and its 96-run win at Colombo has earned it a crucial ratings point which has put it on 120 points – just two behind South Africa and one ahead of third-placed India.

Such is the competitive nature of Test cricket, six ratings points separate the Proteas from Australia. And with all the top four teams to resume action in the longer format of the game immediately after next month's ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa, a reshuffling of the pack is definitely on the cards.

The first Test series after the ICC Champions Trophy is West Indies' tour to Australia for three Tests, followed by Sri Lanka's tour to India, England's tour to South Africa for four Tests and a three-Test tour by Pakistan's to Australia.

This gives both India and Sri Lanka the first shot at the number-one spot as the first Test between South Africa and England starts after the conclusion of the Test series in India which, according to the Future Tours Programme, is likely to start in November. While Sri Lanka will need to win the series to go top of the table, India will have to win 2-0 to topple South Africa.

While Sri Lanka's commanding performance in its domestic international series has put it in sight of the top spot, New Zealand has retained its seventh position in the rankings but has conceded two ratings points to lead eighth-placed West Indies by just four rating points and trailed sixth-place Pakistan by the same margin.

ICC Champions Trophy 2009 Match Schedule

Day	Date	The Wanderers		Centurion
1	Tue 22 Sept			SA v SL	D/N
2	Wed 23 Sep	Pakistan v WI	D/N
3	Thu 24 Sept			SA v NZ	D
4	Fri 25 Sept	SL v England	D/N
5	Sat 26 Sept	WI v Australia	D	India v Pakistan	D/N
6	Sun 27 Sept	NZ v SL	D	SA v England	D/N
7	Mon 28 Sept			Australia v India	D/N
8	Tue 29 Sept	England v NZ	D/N
9	Wed 30 Sept	India v WI	D/N	Australia v Pakistan	D
10	Thu 1 Oct
11	Fri 2 Oct			A1 V B2	D/N
12	Sat 3 Oct	B1 v A2	D/N
13	Sun 4 Oct
14	Mon 5 Oct			Final	D/N

ICC Champions Trophy 2009 - Squad list

Australia

Ricky Ponting (captain)
Michael Clarke (vice-captain)
Nathan Bracken
Callum Ferguson
Brad Haddin
Nathan Hauritz
Ben Hilfenhaus
James Hopes
Michael Hussey
Mitchell Johnson
Brett Lee
Peter Siddle
Adam Voges
Shane Watson
Cameron White

England

Andrew Strauss (captain)
James Anderson
Ravi Bopara
Tim Bresnan
Stuart Broad
Paul Collingwood
Joe Denly
Eoin Morgan
Matt Prior
Adil Rashid
Owais Shah
Ryan Sidebottom
Graeme Swann
Luke Wright

India

M S Dhoni (captain)
Abhishek Nayar
Amit Mishra
Ashish Nehra
Dinesh Karthik
Gautam Gambhir
Harbhajan Singh
Ishant Sharma
Praveen Kumar
Rahul Dravid
R P Singh
Sachin Tendulkar
Suresh Raina
Yusuf Pathan
Yuvraj Singh (vice captain)

New Zealand

Daniel Vettori (captain)
Shane Bond
Neil Broom
Ian Butler
Brendon Diamanti
Grant Elliott
Martin Guptill
Gareth Hopkins
Brendon McCullum
Kyle Mills
Jacob Oram
Jeetan Patel
Jesse Ryder
Ross Taylor
Daryl Tuffey

Pakistan

Younus Khan (captain)
Fawad Alam
Iftikhar Anjum
Imran Nazir
Kamran Akmal
Misbah-ul-Haq
Mohammad Yousuf
Mohammad Aamer
Mohammad Asif
Naved-ul-Hasan
Saeed Ajmal
Shahid Afridi (vice captain)
Shoaib Malik
Umar Akmal
Umar Gul

South Africa

Graeme Smith (captain)
Hashim Amla
Johan Botha (vice captain)
Mark Boucher
JP Duminy
AB de Villiers
Herschelle Gibbs
Jacques Kallis
Albie Morkel
Makhaya Ntini
Wayne Parnell
Robin Peterson
Dale Steyn
Lonwabo Tsotsobe
Roelof van der Merwe

Sri Lanka

Kumar Sangakkara (capt)
Ajantha Mendis
Angelo Mathews
Chamara Kapugedera
Dammika Prasad
Lasith Malinga
Mahela Jayawardena
Sanath Jayasuriya
Muttiah Muralidaran
Nuwan Kulasekara
Thilan Samaraweera,
Thilan Thushara
Thilina Kandamby
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Upul Tharanga

West Indies

Floyd Reifer (captain)
David Bernard
Tino Best
Royston Crandon
Travis Dowlin
Andre Fletcher
Nikita Miller
Daren Powell
Kieran Powell
Dale Richards
Kemar Roach
Darren Sammy (vice captain)
Devon Smith
Gavin Tonge
Chadwick Walton

Leading writers claim Jayasuriya is the greatest 50-over cricketer

Legendary New Zealand cricket writer Don Cameron and Scyld Berry, Editor of Wisden, believe that Sanath Jayasuriya should be regarded as the greatest one-day player of all time.

Cameron, who was the New Zealand Herald Cricket Correspondent between 1960 and 1998, believes that Sanath Jayasuriya, who will be part of Sri Lanka?s squad at the ICC Champions Trophy 2009, is deserving of this title, as cricket fans across the world discuss who they believe to be the world?s leading one-day cricketer.

"I have chosen Jayasuriya because he has led Sri Lankan cricket for close on half his 40 years, and whether blasting centuries or fiddling batsmen out with his subtle left-arm slows, plays cricket with a smile on his face, and magic in his fingers," said Cameron.

"And when he and Romesh Kaluwitharana played their explosive opening innings as Sri Lanka won the World Cup in 1995-96 he brought new life to a one-day game that was strangling itself in theory. From a personal point of view he is a cricket-writer's dream."

Meanwhile, Berry agrees that it was the method in which Jayasuriya played the game which makes him deserving of this crown.

"In the past, batting was defensive and bowling was attacking. Now, as a generalisation, it is the other way round. And nobody has done more to bring about this change than Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya, to my mind the greatest of 50-over cricketers," said Berry.

"I can still remember how shocked England were by their World Cup quarter-final of 1996 in Faisalabad. In their philosophy they had never dreamed of an opening batsman who hit every ball from the start, admittedly on a flat wicket, without playing himself in.

"Romesh Kaluwitharana made crash-ball 20s and 30s. His partner, Jayasuriya, scored fast and big: over 12,000 ODI runs in his career, and the second most centuries after Sachin Tendulkar, and all scored at almost a run a ball seizing the initiative for his country.

"If this is not enough to seal the deal, Jayasuriya has been - until Ajantha Mendis came along - Sri Lanka's second best spinner after Muttiah Muralidaran, and taken more than 300 ODI wickets. A brilliant left handed all rounder, his powerful hitting made all formats of cricket more exciting for us all."

To have your say on whom you believe is the greatest one-day player ever.