Shuffling of the pack could be on the cards as players go head to head in battle for top spots in Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Women's Player Rankings

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Taylor and Guha to wear golden armbands to signify their number-one rankings

When the ICC Women’s World Cup gets underway on Saturday there will be more than just team glory to play for as there will also be the battle for the coveted top spots in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Women’s Player Rankings.

England team-mates Claire Taylor and Isa Guha start the tournament in the lead positions in the batting and bowling lists respectively and to signify their status both will wear the golden armbands awarded to the leading players in each category. The two will wear them until there is a change in the leadership.

The 33-year-old Taylor spearheads a strong field of six England batters in the top 20 and is the only player currently with more than 800 rating points. In women’s ranking terms, 800 points marks out a player as truly outstanding.

Other England batters in the top 20 and eying upward movements are Sarah Taylor (fourth), captain Charlotte Edwards, the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year (sixth), Lydia Greenway (15th), Caroline Atkins (17th) and Jenny Gunn (18th).

Guha, 23, leads the field of four English bowlers – Holly Colvin (sixth), Gunn (seventh) and Katherine Brunt (10th) – in the top 10 while Nicky Shaw is in 12th spot. Guha is the only bowler in the list above the 700-point mark.

However, Taylor and Guha will face stiff challenges for those top slots from not only their own team-mates but also from the Australia and New Zealand players who will be aiming to head the lists by the time the rankings are next updated at the end of the first round action on Wednesday 13 March.

Defending champion Australia, has four players in the batting top ten, led by second-placed Lisa Sthalekar and also including Alex Blackwell (fifth), captain Karen Rolton (seventh) and Shelley Nitschke (eighth). In the bowling list the host team has five players in the top 20 – Nitschke (second), Sthalekar (fourth), Emma Sampson (fifth), Kirsten Pike (11th) and Ellyse Perry (16th).

New Zealand players also figure prominently in the top 20 batting and bowling tables.

Ninth-placed Nicola Browne leads a trail of four batters also including captain Haidee Tiffen (10th), vice-captain Aimee Mason (11th) and Sara McGlashen (12th) while Sarah Tsukigawa is in 19th position and Amy Satterthwaite lies in 20th spot.

Browne is also the highest-ranked New Zealand bowler in eighth position, followed by Mason in 13th spot.

India has two batters in the top 20, former captain Mithali Raj in third position and Jaya Sharma, who shares 20th place with Satterthwaite. In the bowling table, the losing finalist from 2005 has four bowlers in the top 20 – captain Jhulan Goswami (third), Rumeli Dhar (ninth), Amita Sharma (19th) and Neetu David (20th).

Besides the top four teams, Sri Lanka is represented in the top 20 batters’ list by Dedunu Silva (13th) and captain Shashikala Siriwardena (14th) who also figures in the bowling table in 18th position. Sajida Shah is Pakistan’s highest-ranked bowler in 17th position while South Africa’s Cri-Zelda Brits is in 16th place and fast bowlers Alicia Smith and Ashlyn Kilowan are in 14th and 15th positions respectively.

The highest-ranked West Indies batter is Stefanie Taylor in 33rd position while the Caribbean side has fast bowler Debbie-Ann Lewis in 35th place in the bowling list.

The Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Women’s Player Rankings for all-rounders is headed by Sthalekar who holds a narrow lead over team-mate Nitschke. The New Zealand duo of Browne and Mason are third and fourth respectively while England’s Gunn is in fifth place.

Full details of the ICC Women’s World Cup, including fixtures, team profiles and biographies on all leading players, can be found at the ICC Women’s World Cup website at www.iccevents.yahoo.com

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

To download free images from the Welcome Function, users need to go to http://iccfiles.sportcentric.org/. click ICC WWW 09 folder, go to Welcome Function 5 March folder and click on the required image to download.

The event logo, high quality audio interviews and more details on the ICC Women’s World Cup 2009 can be found at: http://iccevents.yahoo.com