Bangladesh’s one-day international rankings came under the scanner on Monday after the Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan and the International Cricket Council gave two different versions on the matter. Nazmul indicated that Bangladesh will move to fifth place from seventh after the annual update on May 1 based on their performance in the past three years.
Bangladesh, who are currently seventh with 97 points, but Nazmul, upon his arrival from an ICC meeting, said after the annual update they will gain four more points to take their tally to 101.
It would take them ahead of England and Sri Lanka in the table.
‘I saw this ranking before I went to the meeting, because they sent the papers,’ said Nazmul upon his arrival in Dhaka.
‘I thought they had made a mistake. I thought they were No 7, when did they become No 5? I checked Cricinfo and there too we were No 7.
‘I was in a lot of tension seeing the ranking so I was waiting for it to come up in the agenda in the meeting. When I heard it, I was alone from Bangladesh but you can imagine how I felt.’
After the annul update the top 10 teams in ODI rankings will be Australia (128), New Zealand (117), India ( 115), South Africa ( 114), Bangladesh (101), England (100), Sri Lanka ( 100) , West Indies ( 83), Pakistan ( 79) and, Afghanistan (49), according to Nazmul.
However, an ICC official dismissed the claim.
‘ODI Rankings are calculated on a three-year cycle. When the annual update will be carried out on 1 May 2016, series results from 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons will be used for calculation purposes,’ said an ICC spokesman.
‘However, results of 2013-14 and 2014-15 will be weighted at 50 per cent, while results from 2015-2016 will be weighted at 100 per cent. As such, when the ICC will release the annual ODI rankings on May2, Bangladesh will retain its seventh position,’ he added.
‘If you only consider series results from 2014-15 and 2015-16 (as no matches in the 2016-17 season have been played as yet), then Bangladesh has a ranking of fifth. 2015-16 season, which is weighted at 100 per cent, saw Bangladesh beat Pakistan, India and South Africa.’
When contracted BCB chief executive officer Nizmuddin Chowdhury, who also attended the ICC meeting, said both versions are correct.
‘Basically there are two kinds of rankings. In the general rankings for ODI, we will be in the seventh place. But rankings for event qualification we are already in fifth place.’
‘Since the only qualification event ahead of us is the World Cup, we are currently fifth in the qualification rankings,’ he said.
The series which will be used for calculation purposes of the World Cup will be 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17, with results of 2014-15 and 2015-16 to be weighted at 50 per cent and results of 2016-17 to be weighted at 100 per cent.
-With New Age input
