Shane Watson Steps Down from Australia vice-captaincy

Just less than three months before the first Ashes test, Shane Watson steps down from the vice-captaincy of Australian national cricket team.

Apparantly, the 31-year-old all-rounder is said to have given up the role to concentrate on improving his game. It may be added that Watson's form was questioned after a turbulent tour of India, in which Australia were whitewashed 4-0.

"I think it's the right time for a change for both the team and me," said Watson, who captained the side in their fourth Test defeat by India in March.

"I want to be the best Test player I can be for Australia," said Watson.

Watson was named vice-captain in March 2011 but has not scored a Test century since October 2010.

(via BBC Sport / Cricket ) 
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ICC T20I Team and Player Rankings

ICC has announced the team and player rankings for the T20I Wednesday at the end of the group stage of the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012. 

The Team rankings with points scored are:

1 South Africa 134 
2 England 124
3 India 116
4 Sri Lanka 115 
5 Pakistan 114
6 New Zealand 107
7 Australia 104
8 West Indies 102 
9 Bangladesh 85 
10 Ireland 82
11 Zimbabwe 44

Teams not ranked as fewer than eight T20I matches played since August 2010 are aas under:

Afghanistan 76 
Netherlands 73 
Scotland 67
Canada 11
Kenya 2

As for the individual positions both in batting bowling, following positions have been annopunced:

Batsmen:
New Zealand’s wicket-keeper batsman Brendon McCullum has retained his number-one batting spot with Chris Gayle in second place. McCullum’s knock of 123 against Bangladesh, the highest in the history of Twenty20 International cricket to date, has also helped him achieve a career-best rating of 849.

Australia’s Shane Watson has jumped four places to a career-high third position Watson, who won successive Player of the Match awards against Ireland and West Indies, has also garnered his career-best rating of 758. In addition to his batting exploits (92 runs in two games), Watson has continued to retain seventh position in the ICC T20I Player Rankings for bowlers and is also the number-one ranked all-rounder in the world.



The batsmen from Asia have made the most impressive movements in the batting table ahead of the Super Eight stage which starts in Pallekele on 27 September. Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara has broken back into the top 10 and now sits in eighth position (up by three places). Others to make upward movements are Virat Kohli in 19th (up by 10 places), Rohit Sharma in 26th (up by 12 places), Nasir Jamshed in 32nd (up by 51 places), Shakib Al Hasan in 37th (up by 29 places) and Imran Nazir in 43rd (up by 42 places).

Bowlers: 
In the ICC T20Is Player Rankings for bowlers, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka boast three bowlers each inside the top 20 while Pakistan has three bowlers inside the top 10 with Saeed Ajmal sitting on top of the tree, followed by Shahid Afridi in fifth (up by one place) and captain Mohammad Hafeez in ninth (up by two place). South Africa’s Dale Steyn has jumped 10 places to claim 11th position, while Harbhajan Singh, who claimed four for 12 against England, India’s best figures in a Twenty20 International, has broken into the top 20 and is now at 17th place (up five). 

via The News