Mitchell Johnson returns to the top 10; Tim Southee also on the move

Chris Gayle rises to fourth position while Ross Taylor is back into the top 20

West Indies fast bowlers Darren Sammy, Dwayne Bravo and Kemar Roach have all achieved career-best rankings in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Player Rankings.

Sammy, Bravo and Roach shared 23 wickets between them in the series against Zimbabwe which the West Indies won 4-1 and have been rewarded with big jumps in the latest rankings which were released on Monday at the end of New Zealand-Australia and West Indies-Zimbabwe ODI series which concluded on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Sammy, who took eight wickets in the series, has vaulted 37 places to share 20th spot with Bangladesh's Abdur Razzak, Bravo has jumped 20 places to occupy 24th spot after picking up seven wickets while Roach has rocketed 23 places to sit in 80th position after snapping up eight wickets in the series.

Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson, who won the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy after being named as the 2009 ICC Cricketer of the Year at the LG ICC Awards in Johannesburg, has also returned to the top 10 after a stellar performance against New Zealand.

The 28-year-old Queenslander took 12 wickets in the series against New Zealand which has helped him lift four places to 10th position. Johnson now becomes Australia's highest-ranked bowler after Doug Bollinger slipped two places to 14th spot after managing just four wickets in five ODIs.

New Zealand's Tim Southee is also on the move and after his six wickets in the series, including 4-36 in the final match of the series in Wellington, he has climbed 15 places to a career-best 38th position.

Southee's team-mate Shane Bond, who bagged nine wickets against Australia, has swapped places with fellow New Zealander Kyle Mills who missed the series with shoulder and knee injuries. A player misses one per cent of his ratings for every match he misses, and as such, fifth-placed Bond has taken a 17-point lead over Mills and is just seven points behind fourth-placed Nuwan Kulasekara of Sri Lanka.

Apart from Bollinger, other bowlers who have slipped in the latest rankings include Ray Price of Zimbabwe in third spot (down by one place) and Australia off-spinner Nathan Hauritz in 17th spot (down by one place).

In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen, the West Indies captain Chris Gayle has continued his upward movement and has leapfrogged India great Sachin Tendulkar into fourth position.

Gayle, who was in seventh position at the start of the month, was in sublime form in the series in which he scored 273 runs, including three half-centuries.

New Zealand's middle-order batsman Ross Taylor has also returned to the top 20 after improving his ranking by four places. He is now in 18th position after scoring 177 runs in the series.

Blackcap Scott Styris, who was the pick of the batsmen in the series with 199 runs, has climbed three places to 37th position while second-ranked Michael Hussey has narrowed the gap with India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to just eight points after finishing as the second most successful batsman with 198 runs.

The batsmen slipping in the table are Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies and Brendon McCullum of New Zealand. Both have dropped one place each to ninth and 19th positions, respectively.

There is no change in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders with Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan still leading the field.

Meanwhile, the positions in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship at the annual cut-off date of 1 April have also been confirmed with Australia finishing number-one and India claiming second place, 11 ratings points behind.

For their achievements, Australia will be presented with a cheque of US$175,000 while India will collect US$75,000. This will be in addition to US$175,000 which the India side will collect for claiming the top spot in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship. South Africa, which finished second on the Test table, will receive US$75,000. The cheques presentation ceremony will take place in due course.

Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship (as of 15 March, after New Zealand-Australia and West Indies-Zimbabwe ODI series)

Rank Team Rating 1 Australia 133 2 India 122 3 South Africa 117 4 New Zealand 114 5 England 110 6 Sri Lanka 108 7 Pakistan 104 8 West Indies 72 9 Bangladesh 52 10 Zimbabwe 27 11 Ireland 25 12 Kenya 2

(Developed by David Kendix)

ICC ODI Player Rankings (as of 15 March, after New Zealand-Australia and West Indies-Zimbabwe ODI series)

Batsmen

Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave HS Rating

1 ( - ) MS Dhoni Ind 819 51.13 837 v Aus at Delhi 2009

2 ( - ) Mike Hussey Aus 811 53.71 865 v NZ at Perth 2007

3 ( - ) AB de Villiers SA 785! 42.18 785 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2010

4 (+1) Chris Gayle WI 768 39.77 808 v Zim at Harare 2003

5 (-1) S. Tendulkar Ind 762 45.12 887 v Zim at Sharjah 1998

6 ( - ) Ricky Ponting Aus 732 43.12 831 v NZ at Hobart 2007

7 ( - ) Graeme Smith SA 718 40.67 785 v Ind at Kolkata 2005

8 (+1) Jacques Kallis SA 713 45.74 818 v WI at Johannesburg 2004

9 (-1) S.Chanderpaul WI 711 41.53 778 v Eng at Guyana 2009 10 ( - ) K. Sangakkara SL 701 36.55 755 v Pak at Colombo (RPS) 2006 11 ( - ) Virender Sehwag Ind 694 34.25 787 v NZ at Auckland 2003 12 ( - ) T. Dilshan SL 687! 33.70 687 v Ind at Mirpur 2010 13 ( - ) Yuvraj Singh Ind 682 37.09 786 v WI at Kingston 2009 14 ( - ) P. Collingwood Eng 680 36.47 691 v Ban at Mirpur 2010 15 ( - ) Suresh Raina Ind 659! 38.17 659 v SA at Ahmedabad 2010 16 ( - ) Herschelle Gibbs SA 657 36.13 752 v SL at Durban 2003 17 ( - ) M. Yousuf Pak 655 42.40 779 v Zim at Harare 2002 18 (+4) Ross Taylor NZ 650 35.82 698 v Aus at Adelaide 2009 19= (-1) B. McCullum NZ 648 28.99 666 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2009

( - ) Shane Watson Aus 648 40.64 649 v NZ at Auckland 2010

Bowlers

Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave HS Rating

1 ( - ) Daniel Vettori NZ 761 31.21 4.14 790 v Eng at Christchurch 2008

2 (+1) Shakib Al Hasan Ban 711 30.73 4.08 717 v Zim at Chittagong 2009

3 (-1) Ray Price Zim 696 34.41 3.72 722 v WI at Guyana 2010

4 ( - ) N. Kulasekara SL 682 27.50 4.57 727 v NZ at Colombo (RPS) 2009

5 (+1) Shane Bond NZ 675 20.88 4.28 810 v SA at St George's 2007

6 (-1) Kyle Mills NZ 658 26.45 4.68 723 v Aus at Melbourne 2009

7 ( - ) Harbhajan Singh Ind 645 32.80 4.30 738 v WI at Bridgetown 2002

8 ( - ) Dale Steyn SA 640 30.79 5.35 662 v Zim at Benoni 2009

9 ( - ) Shahid Afridi Pak 639 34.61 4.61 667 v Ind at Mirpur 2008 10 (+4) Mitchell Johnson Aus 637 25.71 4.94 729 v Ban at Darwin 2008 11 ( - ) Stuart Broad Eng 633 25.98 5.14 703 v SA at Trent Bridge 2008 12 (-3) Jacob Oram NZ 629 30.66 4.35 770 v Aus at The Oval 2004 13 ( - ) James Anderson Eng 628 29.93 4.94 700 v Ban at Dhaka 2003 14 (-2) Doug Bollinger Aus 616* 21.87 4.41 634 v NZ at Hamilton 2010 15 ( - ) Johan Botha SA 612 39.81 4.59 665 v Aus at Centurion 2009 16 (+1) Ajantha Mendis SL 604* 17.86 4.29 642 v SA at Centurion 2009 17= (+1) M. Muralidaran SL 599 22.98 3.91 913 v NZ at Sharjah 2002

(-1) Nathan Hauritz Aus 599 31.76 4.61 622 v Ind at Guwahati 2009

(+1) Andrew Flintoff Eng 599 24.38 4.39 758 v Ban at Dhaka 2003 20= (+37) Darren Sammy WI 597*! 39.62 4.39 597 v Zim at Kingstown 2010

( - ) Abdur Razzak Ban 597 27.15 4.46 644 v Eng at Bridgetown 2007

All-rounders

Rank (+/-) Player Team Points HS Rating

1 ( - ) Shakib Al Hasan Ban 426 454 v Zim at Chittagong 2009

2 ( - ) Shane Watson Aus 381 384 v Pak at Sydney 2010

3 ( - ) Daniel Vettori NZ 350 355 v Aus at Auckland 2010

4 ( - ) Yuvraj Singh Ind 343 357 v Ban at Mirpur 2010

5 ( - ) Jacques Kallis SA 337 506 v WI at Bridgetown 2001

*Indicates a provisional rating

For information on the ICC Player Rankings go to: www.reliancemobileiccrankings.com.