For all its foibles, cricket is inherently a simple game. And one-day cricket is the simplified version of a simple game. So why on earth does ICC's long-awaited rankings table have to be so damn complicated? Two factors contributed to its creation: the need to beat the bookies, and the need to generate spectator interest. Neither objective will be fulfilled by this clumsy attempt at sophistication, which clouds the issue instead of colouring it, and requires a maths degree to predict any forthcoming changes in the table. Flawed though the Test version is, the prospect of South Africa going top on the day that Australia wrap up the Ashes is a delicious irony that will keep fans chuntering and chortling for months.

Three lonely columns appear on the one-day table - astonishingly, none of them refers to wins and losses. The first abstractly refers to matches played - between when and when seems not to be of massive import - while the minimalism in the second and third columns beggars belief. Bangladesh, whom everyone has long assumed to be pointless, now in fact have 145 of them, while Australia proudly boast a rating of 128 - 128 what, pray? This obfuscation would be a worthy Turner Prize winner, but it's just not cricket. Andrew Miller

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