Ranking Odds

The rankings look backwards while the odds look forwards ie ranking depends on what a team has done in the past while the odds are a measure of what people think will happen in the future.
The current ODI rankings clearly divide the teams in three categories with huge margins between the top three and the next four and between them and the West Indies.

The odds for the champions trophy show a somewhat different picture (granted that odds also take the format into account as well ie for example Aus, Ind, Pak cannot be all in the semis etc.).

According to the rankings there is little to separate the top three but when one looks at the odds the differences are larger. No doubt SA gets something extra for being the home team and being the maybe only 'strong" team in its group. India and Aus have pretty close odds.

Pakistan's odds no doubt take a hit from having two"strong" teams in its group. Yet they fare not too bad compared to Sri lankan odds. Perhaps the bettors taking into account that their ranking may be adversely affected because of the lack of games that they have seen. However, England and New Zeland seem to be unduly marginalized in the odds with respect to Sri lanka and the fact that there is only one strong team in their group. England takes a further hit compared to New Zealand perhaps because of their string of defeats against Australia even though rankings claim both England and New Zealand to be even.


Team Rating
South Africa 127
India 126
Australia 125
Pakistan 109
Sri Lanka 108
England 105
New Zealand 105
West Indies 78


Odds
South Africa 5/2
Australia 7/2
India 4/1
Sri Lanka 5/1
Pakistan 6/1
New Zealand 10/1
England 16/1
West Indies 33/1