Sport Today

Lara leads world batting list

Record-breaking West Indian Brian Lara was officially  recognised
as the world's top batsman on Monday.

The Trinidad and Tobago left-hander leapt five places to the head
of  the  ratings after his innings of 375 in the drawn final Test
with England, the highest in the history of Test cricket.

The 24-year-old is now more than  100  points  clear  of  India's
Sachin Tendulkar, who is second.

A West Indian also leads the bowlers' list, with  paceman  Curtly
Ambrose  toppling Pakistan quick bowler Waqar Younis after taking
26 wickets in the recent series with England.

Leading ratings

Batsmen:

1.  Brian Lara           (W. Indies)  871 points
2.  Sachin Tendulkar     (India)      762
3.  David Boon           (Australia)  749
4.  Desmond Haynes       (W. Indies)  734
5.  Steve Waugh          (Australia)  717
6.  Andrew Hudson        (S. Africa)  709
7.  Alec Stewart         (England)    706
8.  Richie Richardson    (W. Indies)  698
9.  Mike Atherton        (England)    690
10. Vinod Kambli         (India)      689

Bowlers:

1.  Curtly Ambrose       (W. Indies)  903
2.  Waqar Younis         (Pakistan)   902
3.  Shane Warne          (Australia)  877
4.  Anil Kumble          (India)      861
5.  Allan Donald         (S. Africa)  770
6.  Wasim Akram          (Pakistan)   759
7.  Angus Fraser         (England)    699
8.  Muttiah Muralidharan (Sri Lanka)  643
9.  Craig McDermott      (Australia)  634
10.  erv Hughes          (Australia)  631

Taken from an AFP report

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Vicky:
UMass, Apr 26, 1994

whoa... amazing what one piddly innings of 375 [which incidentally, I
intend to watch tonight - eat your heart out, Sadiq :-)]can do for
you!! :-) Seriously though, this just might be the first time that I
am able to contemplate agreeing with the ratings..... at least as far
as number two... although perhaps that gulf is a bit wide :) either
way, will be interesting to see how they stand after the wi-ind
series. lara will have to do a lot more tha tendulkar to keep a high
rating of course, seeing as he is playing such a low ranked team
agains whom performances count for much less :) [at least, i think the
ratings take that into account, although if so.. why does 375against
england count for anything? :-)]

oooh... I just love this.. these two are becoming famous for their one
point tussles at the top of the rankings...

yes, well.. it's things like this that put the rankings to shame...
then again, there can only be one number one.. so maybe it's not quite
as silly as it looks :)

Rohan [who won $5 by predicting the 3-1 Wi-Eng series result :-)]