ICC Test Championship

Historical rankings

World rankings for the top eight teams from 2003 to June 2011

The ICC provides ratings for the end of each month back to June 2003. The teams that have successively held the highest rating since that date, by whole month periods, are:

Team	Start	End	Total months	Cumulative Months	Highest rating
Australia	June 2003	August 2009	74	74	143
South Africa	August 2009	November 2009	3	3	122
India	November 2009	August 2011	21	21	130
England	August 2011	August 2012	12	12	125
South Africa	August 2012	May 2014	21	24	135
Australia	May 2014	July 2014	3	77	123
South Africa	July 2014	Present	-	34	124
Reference: ICC Rankings

Since the ICC officially began ranking teams in 2003, Australia has dominated as it had done so in Test cricket since around 1995. However from 2009, several teams (Australia, South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and England) have competed for the top positions.

The ICC recently applied its current rating system to results since 1952 providing ratings for the end of each month back to 1952 further indicating Australia's historical dominance in Test Cricket with the most consecutive months ranked first (112) from April 2000 to July 2009, the highest number of months ranked first (321) and the highest rating (143). The table only begins from 1952 as prior to this date, there is not enough data available due to the infrequency of matches and the small number of competing teams in the earlier periods.

The teams that have successively held the highest rating since January 1952 till May 2003, by whole month periods, are:

Team	Start	End	Total months
Australia	January 1952	May 1955	41
England	June 1955	February 1958	33
Australia	March 1958	July 1958	5
England	August 1958	December 1958	5
Australia	January 1959	December 1963	60
West Indies	January 1964	December 1968	60
South Africa	January 1969	December 1969	12
England	January 1970	January 1973	37
Australia	February 1973	March 1973	2
India	April 1973	June 1974	15
Australia	July 1974	January 1978	43
West Indies	February 1978	January 1979	12
England	February 1979	August 1980	19
India	September 1980	February 1981	6
West Indies	March 1981	July 1988	89
Pakistan	August 1988	September 1988	2
West Indies	October 1988	January 1991	28
Australia	February 1991	April 1991	3
West Indies	May 1991	July 1992	15
Australia	August 1992	January 1993	6
West Indies	February 1993	August 1995	31
India	September 1995	November 1995	3
Australia	December 1995	July 1999	44
South Africa	August 1999	December 1999	5
Australia	January 2000	February 2000	2
South Africa	March 2000	March 2000	1
Australia	April 2000	May 2003	38
Reference: ICC Historical Rankings

The summary of teams that have held the highest rating from 1952 to the present by whole month periods, are:

Team	Total months	Highest rating
Australia	321	143
West Indies	235	135
England	106	125
India	45	130
South Africa	42	135
Pakistan	2	110
Reference: ICC Historical Rankings