Australia ranked as the No 1 side in new ICC rankings

The International Cricket Council has launched Women's Team Rankings for the first time, with Australia ranked as the No 1 side in the world.

The Australians are ranked one place ahead of England following their success in the Women's World Cup 2013 in India and the Women's World Twenty20 2014 in Bangladesh.

They also lead the ICC Women's Championship, which is the qualifying tournament for the Women's World Cup 2017.

England are ranked second in the 10-team table, 10 points behind Australia's total of 134, followed by New Zealand (109), India (105), West Indies (99), South Africa (92), Pakistan (81), Sri Lanka (74), Bangladesh (57) and Ireland (26). Teams will be added to the table as and when they reach the required standard.

The new system treats results from Test, ODI and T20I cricket equally and is based on results between three and four years, but with the first two years being weighted at only 50 per cent. 

Australia captain Meg Lanning said: "It's certainly nice to be recognised as world No 1. We've done a lot of hard work in the past few years to win the ICC Women's World Cup and ICC Women's World Twenty, as well as the Ashes recently.

"We are looking forward to staying at the top of the tree for a long time, which is going to be a big challenge but we have the players to do that."

Former England captain and chair of the ICC Women's Committee, Clare Connor said: "These are undoubtedly exciting and historic times for women's cricket around the world. The ICC has made an immense commitment to this milestone moment since it embraced the women's game exactly 10 years ago.

"Well done to Australia on leading the way in these inaugural rankings and for the great progress made by the other teams whose Boards have invested so significantly in the women's game in recent years."

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