Laxman, Tendulkar move up in ICC Rankings

Dubai, Jan 7 (UNI) Despite losing the second Test against Australia in Sydney yesterday, it was not all bad news for India. VVS Laxman, has gained three places in the ICC batting rankings and is back into the top 20.

Sachin Tendulkar has moved up four places to 13th position and once again became the highest-ranked India player, ahead of Rahul Dravid, who dropped one place to 15th spot while Laxman is now at 18th place.

Meanwhile, Australian batsman Michael Hussey has become only the 24th batsman in the history of Test cricket to reach the magic 900-point mark in the LG ICC Player Rankings.

Hussey's knocks of 41 and 145 not out in his side's 122-run win over India in the second Test here were enough to give him 18 rating points, putting him on exactly 900, just one behind team-mate Ricky Ponting.

Only 23 batsmen in the 130-year history of Test cricket have amassed a better rating than the 32-year-old left-hander.

Hussey is not the only Australia batsman celebrating as Andrew Symonds has shot up 12 places and into the top 20 for the first time in his career with a contribution of 162 not out and 61 in the Sydney Test.

Symonds is just one ratings point behind England's Paul Collingwood and three behind India's VVS Laxman, In the Test bowlers ranking- Stuart Clark and Brett Lee of Australia and Dale Steyn of South Africa-all reached career peaks while Steyn has overtaken team-mate Makhaya Ntini to become his country's highest-ranked bowler for the first time.

Just outside the top 20, Andre Nel of South Africa (up three places to 21st position), Daniel Vettori of New Zealand (up two places to 22nd) and India's Harbhajan Singh (up two places to 26th) are all showing good form.

UNI XC HSB RAR HT1812