England and the West Indies are the big movers in the official One-Day International table as their current form, combined with the exclusion of the results of matches more than two years old, sees both sides jump up the ICC ratings.

After starting the summer in eighth place, and moving to seventh during the season, England finishes its ODI schedule in third position in the official table while the West Indies has moved into fourth place, only one point behind England.

The rediff ODI rankings

At the top of the table Australia's lead over South Africa is extended to 16 with Ricky Ponting's side increasing its rating by two to 134 points, while the Proteas drop two points to a rating of 118 after losing to England.

India and Pakistan are the teams that tumble down the table due to the removal of games played between August 2000 and July 2001 from the system.

The ICC ODI Championship table following the annual update process is:

** (pre-update positions in brackets)

Developed by David Kendix, if equal, the ratings calculation is refined to three decimal places to determine the higher ranked team.

ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed explained that the ratings are updated on an annual basis to reflect current form.

"The results from 2000-01 no longer count towards the table," he said.

"This ensures that the newly updated ratings continue to reflect the current form of all teams as the changes to the table clearly show."

England's good recent form along with the exclusion of a period when the England lost 12 of 14 ODI matches has boosted the side's rating by 4 points to 107.

The new ratings for West Indies and New Zealand also reflect improved performances this year with the combination of recent strong showings against higher ranked teams and the exclusion of out-of-date results from the calculations. In the period August 2000 to July 2001, West Indies won just eight of 23 ODI's and New Zealand 12 of 36.

West Indies, therefore, improves its rating by three points to 106 (106.130 to three decimal places) while New Zealand's rating increases by five to 106 (105.955), the largest improvement by any team.

Despite India managing to hold its rating of 104 points, the same as it had before the update, it slides from fifth to eighth on the table as other teams overtake it based on current form.

India's ranking reflects its inconsistent performances in recent times. It has performed well at the ICC cricket World Cup 2003 and ICC Champions Trophy 2002 but lost its home ODI series against West Indies and struggled against New Zealand away. This record is similar to the period now excluded from the ratings when India won 16 of 28 games played.

Pakistan also falls from third to seventh in the table, reflecting its recent patchy form and the fact that a number of strong performances two years ago no longer count towards its rating.

The official ODI table highlights the evenness of the teams ranked from third to eighth with just three ratings points separating six teams. With a number of series involving all these sides scheduled over the coming months, teams will have the opportunity to strengthen their positions on the table.

Each year the ICC ODI table is updated to reflect the current form of each team. Results of matches more than two years old are dropped from the ratings calculations each July to ensure that the rating reflects up-to-date performance.

Ratings are rounded to the nearest whole number but in the event of two or more teams being tied, for positional purposes the ratings calculation is refined to three decimal places to determine the higher ranked team.

England's victory against South Africa on Saturday was the last ODI to be played in the world before the end of July allowing the ratings update to be completed and the new table to be calculated.

Australia continues to hold a commanding lead as the last 12 months has been its most successful period to date. It will take a serious downturn in Australia's form for its first place to be put in jeopardy. The first ODI of the post-update period will be Australia's opening home match against Bangladesh on 2 August.

A full explanation of the ICC ODI table and the update process is available on the ICC website.