A seeding system put in place for the next World Cup in South Africa has taken the meaningless tag off many of the One-Day International series played around the world.

South Africa has devised a method of seeding based on performances since the last World Cup in 1999 in England up until September this year.

That will allow the South Africans to release the draw in October with teams allocated the 14 positions available in two pools.

If used for all future World Cups, the system will ensure there is plenty hanging on every sanctioned game.

Pool A will be the team's ranked, one, four, five, eight, nine, twelve and thirteen with Pool B the other sides.

The last three teams to join the World Cup line-up will be known after the ICC Associate Members Trophy tournament in July in Canada.

Based on the results up to the moment, New Zealand, which is ranked seventh on the world table would share Pool B with, (in order of ranking) South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, NZ, Bangladesh and Kenya and the third-placed team at the ICC event.

The overall rankings, based on percentages of wins, are:

Australia 80.0, South Africa 64.58, Sri Lanka 61.36, Pakistan 55.10, England 55.0, India 47.17, New Zealand 38.19, West Indies 37.21, Zimbabwe 25.45, Bangladesh 0.0, Kenya 0.0.

The rankings system also highlights the need for New Zealand to up its performance in the remaining one-day programme ahead of the side.

The five One-Day Internationals against Pakistan, starting in Auckland on Saturday, the tri-series in Sri Lanka during the winter, and the one-day series in Pakistan are the last chances for New Zealand to lift their lowly status.

Ironically, even if New Zealand did achieve better than a 50% success rate in its games before the end of September, it is unlikely to be able to bridge the gap with India, or to England, and would probably remain in the same pool for the tournament.

What the system does highlight too, is that sides will, in future, have to be careful about where they groom their new players to step into one-day sides. Under the system in place for 2003, it may be that the new players, in bulk, are more often introduced after the draw has been made.

The advantage for teams knowing where they are drawn, and who they will play, also makes the preparations for the tournament much easier and allowing the setting up of a tournament base.

New Zealand Cricket's cricket manager John Reid has already been in South Africa scouting possible bases for New Zealand's build-up.

Having such a system of scoring in place also minimises the opportunities for games to be fixed or subject to the attentions of bookmakers.

© CricInfo