Srilanka on top in CEAT Cricket Rating

It’s Sri Lanka all the way, in the CEAT Cricket Rating for the year 2004-05.

Srilankan skipper, the stylish Marvan Atapattu has climbed to the top of the CEAT Cricket Rating for the year 2004-05 after his team’s mammoth innings win against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo. Atapattu’s 249, his sixth double hundred in Test cricket, gave him 18 points. He leads the CEAT Cricket Rating with 28 points as well as the batting tally with 27 points.

At the second spot is Kumara Sangakkara, who scored 270 and added 438 with Atapattu in the same match. Five points behind Sangakkara’s 19 is the game’s greatest wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan, who topped the CEAT Cricket Rating in 2000-01 and again in 2001-02.

The series win in Zimbabwe has helped secure Sri Lanka’s place at the top of the CEAT Team Rating, with a total of 20 points followed by West Indies at 12 and England with 2 points.

The annual CEAT Cricket Ratings, now in their ninth year, take into account all international cricket played between the 1st of May and the 30th of April every year. The Player and Team Ratings for the year 2002-03 were topped by Ricky Ponting and Australia respectively.