ICC Website glitch puts India ahead of Australia in Test rankings; rectifies later
The International Cricket Council (ICC) seems to have done a major ranking goof-up. After officially declaring Rohit Sharma’s side as No 1 across formats – Tests, ODIs and T20Is — on Wednesday afternoon, India were back down to No 2 in Tests, with Australia at the top of the tree. The sudden change in the ranking status has not gone down well with the officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and they are certainly not amused. “Either they have done a serious goof-up or they have jumped the gun and neither is amusing,” said a BCCI official. With India currently leading the four-Test series against Australia 1-0, it is almost certain that they will overtake Australia in the Test rankings but the ICC seems to have jumped the gun. As per the rankings on Wednesday afternoon, India were at No 1 position in the Tests with a rating of 115, while Australia followed them with four points less at 111. England (106), New Zealand (100) and South Africa (85) were the next three positions. As per the current rankings, India have unchanged rating points of 115 with Australia having 126 points. The ICC said the glitch was a technical error. “For a short period of time, a technical error meant India were erroneously displayed as the No.1 Test team on the ICC website, which has since been corrected.” Sources have said the digital team in the ICC’s Dubai office may have committed the error in calculation. India continue to remain on top in the other three two formats – ODIs and T20Is – with the Men in Blue just one point ahead of world champions England (266) in T20Is. India (114) have two points more than Australia (112) in the ODIs.
