T20 Rankings Update: Jan 2023

TAWC Rankings Debut

Welcome to the first TAWC T20 International Rankings. The full updated list is here: January rankings. This is the first of our monthly updates, although we did make adjustments throughout the month upon the completion of matches played. (South Africa Tri-series, Pakistan in Australia)

Why Not Just Use the ICC Rankings?

We did, until December 2022, but we found them not to be a true reflection of the state of women’s cricket. Far too many anomalies – and of course, there’s always going to be one or two when you apply a formula across 80 teams over a rolling four year period – but to have teams that haven’t played since 2018 outranking teams that have played recently is unreasonable. To have teams that actually have been playing, missing altogether – surely women’s cricket deserves better, so we made our own.

How Does it Work?

Every team that has played women’s T20 Internationals is included, but we have based our calculations on the most recent four year period. This means that a team like Lesotho is still on the list, but with no points. Should they start playing again they will start earning rankings points, but there is another caveat: teams must have played more than 15 games in the four years.

Why? Take Greece, for example. They’ve played three games and won all three. That would put them in thirteenth position which would make sense as a ranking. On the chart, there is a thin, black line after the 41st position. The rankings below that line are there for reference only. Once the team lifts above 15 games they have full ranking.

Given the impact of the covid pandemic, it’s only in recent times that many teams have resumed playing and we’ll see a feast of cricket in 2023 that will heavily impact these numbers.

January Update

All results from January 2023 have been added. (South Africa Tri-series, Pakistan in Australia)

All results from January 2019 have now been removed:

• West Indies v Pakistan
• Nigeria v Rwanda
• Namibia v Zimbabwe
• Thailand Smash (HK, Indo, Bhu, Thai, Myan, Chi, UAE, Nep, Mal)

Calculations

The teams have been divided into four categories and these will shift as teams move up and down. The month end numbers will determine who is in each group and applied accordingly.

The categories are the first three groups of ten teams, and then the rest. Different points are given for victories against a team according to their grouping. A victory over a top ten team earns 7 points, irrespective of where that team sits.

For example if Scotland (second ten) defeats Australia, they earn 7 points. The points are awarded according to the team defeated, not where the winner sits.

• Defeat a team in the top ten, earn 7 points. (Ireland beats Pakistan = 7 points, or Scotland beats England, also 7 points)
• Defeat a team in next ten (11 to 20), earn 4 points. (Scotland beats UAE = 4 points, or Germany beats UAE, also 4 points)
• Defeat a team in the next ten (21 to 30), earn 3 points. (Rwanda beats Hong Kong = 3 points, or Australia beats Hong Kong, also 3 points)
• Defeat a team with a ranking of 31 or more, earn 2 points. (Greece beats Malta = 2 points, or Hong Kong beats Malta, also 2 points)

Anomalies

Surprisingly, when first calculated, this system produced a roughly similar result to the ICC, but without the glaring holes, but that doesn’t mean this system hasn’t produced a few quirky results. I’ll tackle them here:

• West Indies – started the year in 15th place, but removing January results from 2019 plus their disastrous form in South Africa in January 2023 sent them reeling to 19th. I don’t think they are the 19th team in the world, but to be frank, they were lucky to even be 15th. Just 9 wins from 39 games over four years – the numbers aren’t pretty. I think 15th would probably be a fairer result, but their form over the last few months is worrying and it doesn’t look like improving.
• Sri Lanka – the other Full Member nation to fall out of the top ten. Being a FM nation doesn’t guarantee victories however and 11 wins from 34 matches over four years with not a single series win. Why are they below West Indies? They’ve played lower ranked teams in two versions of the Asia Cup, with victories carrying less points. Like the Windies I don’t see this team climbing up the rankings in a hurry.
• Zimbabwe – 7th place is a little high for this team, but the numbers don’t lie. January updates saw them drop a spot with their 5-0 victory over Namibia removed. It will be important for this team to play higher calibre teams in order to maintain this position although it is only a small difference from the ICC.

February

This month we see the end of the SA Tri series, Cambodia hosting Singapore and the T20 World Cup. We will update as each match reaches a conclusion.

At the end of the month we dump February 2019 results. I can tell you in advance this will help India and Sri Lanka, but will hurt Thailand and UAE. It will have no impact in Africa (aside from SA at the World Cup). Ditto Europe aside from the World Cup teams, while in East Asia Pac it will negatively impact New Zealand (unless they win the World Cup!) There will be no impact on the Americas aside from West Indies.