The no. 1 paradox

Wednesday began in Bangladesh cricket with a mixed feeling. On one hand, Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan had reclaimed the top spot of the ICC Twenty20 internationals all-rounder rankings. On the other hand, Bangladesh had dropped down two places in the T20I rankings after defeats to Scotland and Sri Lanka.

By the end of the day, the day turned sour as England, thrashed the Tigers.

And in that match, Shakib failed to contribute with either bat or ball on his day of becoming the world’s top-ranked all-rounder. This once again put forth the question of whether the T20I all-rounder rankings truly expressed who the best T20 player in the world is.

As ICC handed T20I status to almost all the international T20 matches around the globe, players from the higher-ranked associate nations have the opportunity to play against teams who are just taking baby steps in world cricket.

This has given them a boost, leading players from Namibia, Scotland and Oman to have a place in the top 10. With calculations that consider factors like impact or the valuation of the match, the rankings might see a different table than the current one.

JJ Smit of Namibia is now ranked third in the T20 rankings of all-rounders, Zeeshan Maqsood is fifth on the same table followed by Richard Berrington of Scotland and Khawar Ali from Oman.

In the Frequently Asked Questions area of the ICC Website, the cricket’s governing body described how they measure the rankings of an all-rounder,

“To obtain the index, simply take the player's batting and bowling points, multiply them together and divide by 1000. So, a player with 800 batting and 0 bowling gets an index of zero (because he can't bowl and therefore isn't an all-rounder!), 600 batting/200 bowling gets a rating of 120, and 400 batting/400 bowling points gets a rating of 160. Because the ratings take account of the opposition strength, there shouldn't be any obvious advantage to playing against any particular team.”, wrote ICC.

The rankings show a purely mathematical calculation of performance, but in a game like cricket, where there are various factors at play, it often fails to show who the true best at the moment is. But then again, Benjamin Disraeli did say, “There are three types of lies -- lies, damn lies, and statistics.”