Unusual Suspects crash the party.

Official ranking systems are pilloried at the best of times in sports. But this week when 3 teams from the Top 4 were knocked out before the Champions Trophy semi-finals the ICC might actually have been thankful. I have said this before - ODI fatigue arises out of unequal contests and poor quality cricket. Pakistan, England, New Zealand each came to South Africa with poor recent records and missing top players but played thrilling cricket, perhaps unburdened by the favourites tag. Pakistan are certainly the most talented and balanced team in ODI cricket and under Younis Khans leadership they should win more regularly in future. England and New Zealand have shown they can spring surprises but need to add more X-factor players besides Kevin Pietersen and Shane Bond if they are to win high-pressure games. India, South Africa and SriLanka werent focused enough and the knock-out format punished them for this. Australia have once again shown their class in ICC tournaments. Instead of lamenting the loss of top players or complaining about their gruelling schedule they've lifted their ODI game since the Ashes loss and scrapped past the group stage.

Johnson takes top gong at ICC awards

Mitchell Johnson has taken home the coveted ICC World Player of the Year award at the annual ICC event last night. Indians dominated the winners list with MS Dhoni and Gautham Gambhir winning ODI and Test player of the Year respectively. Dhoni was also named captain of the Test team. Other members of the World Test Team of the Year: Gautam Gambhir (India), Andrew Strauss (England), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Thilan Samaraweera (Sri Lanka), Michael Clarke (Australia), MS Dhoni (India, capt & wk), Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh), Mitchell Johnson (Australia), Stuart Broad (England), Dale Steyn (South Africa), Harbhajan Singh (India, 12th man)