ICC Test Cricket Champions - small improvements

This ranking follows the basic elements of the ICC rating, but with two minor improvements of things I find wrong with that rating:

1. The way previous years are dropped from consideration. The ICC drop some series from the rating, thereby causing jumps when the august recalculation is done. I deduct 1/3 of the points, so that no jumps occur. In total, the previous years are counted in the same weight as the ICC.
2. The value of the opposition. The ICC use the value just prior to the series in question. That makes that the final rating is dependent on the order in which two series are played. If England first win against New Zealand and then lose against West Indies, the West Indies rating goes up more than it would if those series had been reversed. For series within the same season, such an outcome is unacceptable. In my table, the value of the opposition is constant, and arrived at after a number of iterations. The values from previous years are not changed.
   As a consequence, in my table, South Africa did not drop from second in August 2004
3. a third change is needed because of the second one. The maximum gap of 40 points is not witheld, since this would mean Bangladesh drop to minus infinity. I have included a system however, that the minimum number of points for a win match is equal to the team's own average (this is needed when two teams are more than 50 points apart). Also the maximum points for a loss is the team's average. The corrected points are placed in brackets.
4. and a fourth one concerned the rating for Bangladesh. In the ICC system, a rating keeps dropping if one keeps losing. In fact, the rating for Bangladesh ought to have gone below 0, but for some reason the ICC did not do this. In my system, a rating does not drop if one loses to a team more than 50 points in front. So all ratings below 33 could have been applied to Bangladesh originally. I chose to award Bangladesh a rating of 33 at the start of my calculations, and they rose to 35 because of two drawn matches in 2003-04, and later to 42 after their first-ever win.
5. Finally, I have not taken into account matches that were drawn because of very limited playing time, such as Chennai and Napier 2005-06

The table during 2003-04. The table during 2004-05. The table during 2005-06. The table during 2006-07

Current Ranking (August 2007):

sides	points	M	rating
Australia	3513	25	141
England	3635	31	117
South Africa	2789	26	107.3
India	2570	24	107.1
Sri Lanka	2568	24	107.0
Pakistan	2423	23	105
New Zealand	1564	15	104
West Indies	1855	23	81
Bangladesh	787	18	44

the series of 2006-07:

sides	opp (rat)	nr of tests +1	points from opp (1)	result	points from res (2)	points gained

(1) equals the opponent's rating times the number of matches

(2) difference between results, multiplied by 50.

The calculation:

sides	points begin	M	points year	M	points total	M	rating
Australia	3513	32	0	0	3513	32	141
Bangladesh	787	20	0	0	787	20	44
England	3635	31	0	0	3635	31	117
India	2570	24	0	0	2570	24	107
New Zealand	1564	23	0	0	1564	23	104
Pakistan	2423	23	0	0	2423	23	105
South Africa	2789	26	0	0	2789	26	107
Sri Lanka	2568	24	0	0	2568	24	107
West Indies	1855	23	0	0	1855	23	81
Zimbabwe	526	10	0	0	526	10	53

Start (1/3 deduction on 1 August 2007):

sides	points	M	points'	M'	rating
Australia	5339	38	3513	25	141
England	5511	47	3635	31	117
South Africa	4184	39	2789	26	107.3
India	3855	36	2570	24	107.1
Sri Lanka	3852	36	2568	24	107.0
Pakistan	3687	35	2423	23	105
New Zealand	2398	23	1564	15	104
West Indies	2823	35	1855	23	81
Zimbabwe	789	15	526	10	53
Bangladesh	1180	27	787	18	44

Written : 2003-05-21 - Last Modified : 2007-07-17