Rediff Test rankings: Australia end on top

Although India currently top the official Reliance Mobile ICC Test Rankings, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni has even received a mace for this achievement, Australia continue to stay on top of the Rediff Test Rankings.

There's a simple enough explanation for this: the ICC and Rediff Test rankings are calculated based on different formulae. ICC accords the highest weightage to recently won Test matches; the Rediff rankings consider a much wider window spanning the most recent home-away series between every pair of teams.

So while India's recent Ttest form is excellent, Australia has still done much more if we look at the Test results in the past few years.

The Rediff Test Rankings, as 2009 draws to a close, appear in Table A. Australia (77.49), India (62.83), South Africa (61.98) and England (49.00) occupy the top four places.

This update covers England's 2-1 Ashes win in England, Sri Lanka's 2-0 home win against New Zealand, India's 2-0 home win against Sri Lanka, Pakistan's 1-1 drawn series in New Zealand and Australia's 2-0 win at home against West Indies to retain the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy.