Cape Town - The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday launched a global ICC Women's T20I world rankings, with the Proteas coming in at No 6 on the list.
Three-time ICC Women’s World Twenty20 champions Australia lead the inaugural 46-team table, which follows the decision earlier this year to award international status to all T20 matches between member countries.
All women’s T20 matches between members have had international status since the Asia Cup in June and the new rankings system will help teams gauge where they stand in the shortest format of the game. Teams will have to play six T20I matches in the previous three to four years to remain on the rankings table.
The system moves away from the combined rankings in place earlier and there is now a separate ICC Women’s ODI Team Rankings table with 10 teams, in line with the men’s rankings, which are separate for each format.
"We are committed to growing the game and T20 is the vehicle through which we’ll do this. Global rankings and international status for all T20 games between Members is a huge step forward and will contribute to our efforts to accelerate the growth of the women’s game," ICC CEO dave Richardson said.
"The new rankings will provide incentive for teams to play regularly and mark their progress globally. I wish teams all the best."
Australia, who were top-ranked in the combined rankings system, are now ranked number one in both forms of the game and lead trans-Transman rivals New Zealand by three points in the T20I rankings table. Australia are on 280 points, New Zealand on 277 while England are just a further one point behind with 276 points.
T20I Team Rankings (as of 12 October)
1 Australia - 280
2 New Zealand - 277
3 England - 276
4 West Indies - 259
5 India - 249
6 South Africa - 243
7 Pakistan - 227
8 Sri Lanka - 207
9 Bangladesh - 193
10 Ireland - 188
11 Scotland - 150
12 Thailand - 146
13 Zimbabwe - 145
14 UAE - 130
15 Uganda - 127