David Richardson previews the release of the Reliance ICC T20I Rankings

Dubai, ICC Media Release, Oct 20, 2011: David Richardson, ICC General Manager – Cricket, previews the upcoming release of the Reliance ICC T20I Rankings which will be launched on Monday (24 October),

on this week’s 30-minute special ICC Cricket World Radio Show Joining Richardson on this week’s full show is South Africa women’s captain Cri-Zelda Brits who look ahead to the side’s upcoming series against England and the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier next month in Dhaka, Bangladesh (14 to 27 November).

With the ICC due to launch the Reliance ICC T20I Player and Team Rankings on Monday, Richardson says: “It’s very important for T20 international cricket that these rankings are being announced next week. As many listeners know, the ICC has a policy that the three formats are given equal importance and attention and at the moment we have team and player rankings in place for both Tests and ODIs but not for T20 Internationals. This launch is an important thing for the T20 format.

“I think rankings are always going to be a talking point, that’s what they are intended to do, to generate interest in the game and generate context. Who is to say they are 100-percent right, every follower will think their team is better than the other. They are robust in their creation, over time they do reflect who the better team is and that’s all you can ask – they will bring discussion but that is to be expected.”

Former England captain Michael Vaughan talks this week on the show about the importance of volunteers in the game of cricket and how they are a much needed entity in the sport. “Without volunteers at the grass-roots level I don’t think the game goes ahead. I look back to my time as a youngster and I had many coaches in Sheffield where the players from the team would help out with the juniors on a weekday evening or a Sunday morning.

The scorers, the people make the teas, the ground staff, they’re all volunteers around many countries and without them the game would not go ahead,” says Vaughan. Previewing the upcoming series between South Africa and England and the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier in Bangladesh in November, Brits says:

“The last three or four months have been focussed on the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier but that doesn’t mean we’ll be taking this series against England lightly, especially as they’re the number one side in the world.

“We’ve worked hard on getting a bigger squad together; there’s been lots of competition between the girls to get into the squad for Bangladesh. We’ve played a few of the teams competing against us in Bangladesh, but the one thing we can’t shy away from is the fact we have very little experience of playing in the sub-continent.”

Also former South African player Pat Symcox looks at the current series between South Africa and Australia: “It’s going to be a hard-fought series, it’s a face bowling series, Craig McDermott the bowling coach of Australia and Alan Donald, South Africa’s bowling coach, will both be getting young guys to have a go with the ball.

“Australia has the likes of Brett Lee, and new boy Patrick Cummins and left-armer Mitchell Johnson, while South Africa has an attack with Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Jacques Kallis, it will be tough to bat with bowlers like that,” says Symcox.

Ireland coach Phil Simmons looks back on the first two rounds of the ICC Intercontinental Cup and Zimbabwe’s Tatenda Taibu reviews Zimbabwe’s recent performances while Bangladeshi commentator Athar Ali Khan looks forward to Bangladesh’s upcoming Test series against West Indies.

Apart from these exclusive interviews, there is the usual round-up of cricketing news and an update of the Reliance ICC Player Rankings.