Proteas 4th in ICC T20 table

Dubai - The Proteas have been ranked at No 4 on the inaugural International Cricket Council (ICC) Twenty20 table which was released at the ICC headquarters in Dubai on Monday.

This means that the Proteas are ranked in the top four in all three formats of the international game.

Those ranked ahead of them are World Twenty20 champions England, Sri Lanka and New Zealand and they will have the chance to improve their position with three away matches against both New Zealand and England next year. They do not have any Twenty20 fixtures against Sri Lanka during their upcoming tour of South Africa in December and January.

The rankings do not affect the draw for the 2012 edition of the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka as the groups have already been settled with the Proteas in the same section as Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

In the individual rankings there are four South African batsmen in the top 20 headed by Graeme Smith (10). The others are JP Duminy (13), Jacques Kallis (17) and AB de Villiers (20).

Johan Botha (5) is the leading ranked South African bowler followed by Morne Morkel (11) and Dale Steyn (16).

Kallis is ranked No 7 among the all-rounders with Albie Morkel at No 9.

The No 1 batsman, bowler and all-rounder on the rankings respectively are Eoin Morgan of England, Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka and Shane Watson of Australia.

ICC Twenty20 Championship table:

1. England 127
2. Sri Lanka 126
3. New Zealand 117
4. South Africa 113
5. India 112
6. Australia 111
7. Pakistan 97
8. West Indies 89
9. Afghanistan 75
10. Zimbabwe 54

Note: Bangladesh, Netherlands, Kenya, Ireland, Canada and Scotland will have to play eight T20Is before they will have a ranking. The table reflects all T20Is played since August 2009.

Batsmen

1. Eoin Morgan (ENG)    
2. B.McCullum (NZ)  
3. Kevin Pietersen (ENG)               
4. M. Jayawardene (SL)             
5. Suresh Raina (IND)        
6. T.Dilshan (SL)        
7. K. Sangakkara (SL)        
8. Umar Akmal (PAK)     
9. Shane Watson (AUS)      
10. Graeme Smith (SA)        
 
Bowlers

1. Ajantha Mendis (SL) 
2. Graeme Swann (ENG)       
3. Saeed Ajmal (PAK)      
4. N.McCullum (NZ)        
5. Johan Botha (SA)        
6. Shahid Afridi (PAK)       
7. Shaun Tait (AUS)     
8. Darren Sammy (WI)        
9. Harbhajan Singh (IND)         
10. Lasith Malinga (SL)       

All-rounders

1. Shane Watson (AUS)   
2. Shahid Afridi (PAK)     
3. David Hussey (AUS)        
4. M.Hafeez (PAK)   
5. Chris Gayle (WI)   
6. Yuvraj Singh (IND)      
7. Jacques Kallis (SA)          
8. T.Dilshan (SL)     
9. Albie Morkel (SA)      
10. Abdul Razzaq (PAK)