BEVAN AND POLLOCK TOP THE ONE DAY RATINGS

Michael Bevan and Shaun Pollock are the new number one batsman and bowler in the PricewaterhouseCoopers One Day Ratings, updated after 65 one-day internationals played this year.

Bevan has averaged 102.2 with the bat in 1999 and takes over from Sachin Tendulkar who missed two series for India. Pollock replaces Saqlain Mushtaq at number one.

The One Day Ratings put more emphasis on players' recent form than performances earlier in their careers.

GILCHRIST AND KLUSENER CLIMB

In the batting, there have been big climbs for Adam Gilchrist (up 15 to 5th) and Lance Klusener (up 30 to 9th). Those surprised at Klusener's rise will be interested that he has averaged 88.6 with the bat this year, scoring at about a run a ball. Graeme Hick (11th), Inzamam-ul-Haq (14th) and Darren Lehmann (20th) have also moved up significantly in 1999.

Brian Lara has dropped by almost 100 points since January, but his very high Rating from previous years means that he holds on to third place.

In the bowling, Azhar Mahmood's combination of wickets and economy has lifted him to third in the bowling (Mahmood has been one of the most economical ODI bowlers over the last twelve months). Glenn McGrath, who has been set back by injury for much of the last two years, is up 12 places to 10th. Other bowlers heading for the top are Adam Dale (20th), Alan Mullally (33rd), Merv Dillon (39th) and Shoaib Akhtar (41st). All of these bowlers are still qualifying for their full Ratings (which they will achieve after playing 40 matches).

Note 1 If a player misses an ODI for his country for any reason, he loses 0.5% of his points. Glenn McGrath and Sachin Tendulkar have both lost points for this in 1999.

Note 2 We have reviewed and amended the way the Ratings are calculated prior to the World Cup. The changes include an improvement to the method of assessing opposition bowling strength. These changes have been backdated, and some players' points have therefore been affected.

TOP PLAYERS BY COUNTRY

The following are the top One Day batsmen and bowlers in the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers Ratings, by country:

Country      Batsman                  Bowler
England      Graeme Hick (11th)       Darren Gough (5th=)
Australia    Michael Bevan (1st)      Shane Warne (8th)
Bangladesh   Amin-ul-Islam (70th)     Mohammad Rafiq (76th)
India        Sachin Tendulkar (2nd)   Anil Kumble (5th)
Kenya        Steven Tikolo (56th)     Asif Karim (46th)
New Zealand  Nathan Astle (7th)       Chris Harris (11th)
Pakistan     Saeed Anwar (10th)       Saqlain Mushtaq (2nd)
Scotland     - 
South Africa Hansie Cronje (4th)      Shaun Pollock (1st)
Sri Lanka    Aravinda de Silva (11th) Muttiah Muralitharan (7th)
West Indies  Brian Lara (3rd)         Curtly Ambrose (9th)
Zimbabwe     Grant Flower (24th)      Paul Strang (13th=) 

BEST RATINGS

The PricewaterhouseCoopers Ratings represent a snapshot of how players stand based on their recent performances. However, the peak Ratings of players are a good indicator of who have been the top players in the past.

The final column in the attached tables shows the highest Ratings the players have reached (the Ratings have been backdated using the updated ratings program). 800 points is an indicator of outstanding form, and 900 is exceptional and rarely reached by any player.

In the batting, the highest Ratings in the 1990s have been achieved by Brian Lara, Gary Kirsten, Sachin Tendulkar and Aravinda de Silva. All except Tendulkar are currently more than 100 points below their peak Ratings.

In the bowling, the highest Ratings have been for Curtly Ambrose, Shane Warne, Saqlain Mushtaq, Allan Donald and Anil Kumble. Ambrose is down nearly 200 points from his peak of 915 in 1992.

AVERAGES AND RATINGS

Conventional averages in One Day Internationals are often meaningless. Batting averages are distorted by not outs and bowling averages ignore the importance of economy. Below are the leading averages in ODIs for 1999, with comments on how the PricewaterhouseCoopers Ratings deal with some of the issues.

The top batting averages for 1999 in ODIs are:

              Runs Innings N.O. Ave
Michael Bevan  511      14  9   102.2
Lance Klusener 443      12  7    88.6
Guy Whittall   149       4  2    74.5
Steven Tikolo  187       4  1    62.3
Inzamam-ul-Haq 498      11 11    55.3

(Sachin Tendulkar has averaged only 18.3 in four games this year, and Lara 13.3 in eight).

Batting averages benefit considerably from not outs. The PricewaterhouseCoopers Ratings give a batsman relatively little credit for remaining not out, but they do give credit for fast scoring. Klusener's high Rating is boosted by his rate of scoring rather than his average.

Steven Tikolo is Kenya's highest rated batsman at 56th. The Ratings take into account the bowling attack that a batsman faces. In Tikolo's case, almost one third of his runs have been made against Bangladesh (including a recent 108 not out). He gets less credit for these runs than for big scores against the countries with highly rated bowlers.

The bowling averages for 1999 (qualification 5 wickets, and in order of economy) are:

              Runs Wickets Average Econ.
Paul Strang    162     7    11.0   2.85
Adam Dale      564    13    24.1   3.32
Azhar Mahmood  582    19    17.7   3.46
Shaun Pollock  562    22    15.2   3.56
Shoaib Akhtar  528    22    14.5   3.62

The Ratings combine wicket-taking with economy. If every bowler bowled 0 for 25, the opponents' total off 50 overs would be 125, while if everyone took 2 for 40 the opponents would reach 200. This shows why it is important to give credit for economy. In fact in the Ratings, 0 for 25 and 2 for 40 are given roughly the same credit.

All of the bowlers above have moved up the Ratings this year except for Paul Strang, who has remained roughly level. All of Strang's bowling was against Kenya, for which he gets less credit than bowling to the top batsmen from the established countries.

Adam Dale has rocketed up the Ratings because of his impressive economy. Had he been fit for the recent series in the West Indies he might easily have reached the top five in the Ratings by now. If he is fit for the World Cup, he is very likely to be in the top ten of the Ratings by the end of May. Shoaib Akhtar is another bowler likely to reach the top ten soon.