Australia must win series to maintain Test Championship lead

Australia must win both matches of the forthcoming two-Test home series against Sri Lanka to improve its rating at the top of the ICC Test Championship table.

Australia goes into the series with a rating of 127 which will improve to 128 if it wins 2-0 in the series which starts in Darwin on Thursday.

A 1-0 win will leave the undisputed leaders with an unchanged rating, while a draw or defeat will cause its rating to fall.

Sri Lanka is currently seventh in the official Test table and even a series draw will see its rating improve. If it can win the series 1-0 it will improve its rating to 99 which will lift it level with Pakistan in fifth spot.

This will be the last series to be completed before the annual update of the ICC Test Championship ratings on 1 August. At this time ratings points picked up before 1 August 2001 are dropped from the calculations while the weighting of series completed between 1 August 2002 and 31 July 2003 drop to 50%.

The ICC Test Championship table correct on 29 June 2004

Note: If ratings are equal, the ratings calculation is refined to three decimal places to determine the higher ranked team.

Full scenarios for Australia v Sri Lanka Test series:

Chris Broad from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Referees will officiate on the series while Billy Bowden and Aleem Dar from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires will stand in both Tests.

The official Test table is updated at the end of each series once the final outcome of the series is known. The winning team from a Test series receives bonus points equivalent to one additional match victory.

The impact future results will have on the ratings is available on the ICC website. For a full explanation of how the ratings are calculated, visit www.icc.cricket.org.

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