By Ben Kunicki BBC Sport Online at Lord's

Only one year after launching their Test Championship the ICC has devised yet another system of rankings, this time for the one-day game.

Since 1975, the World Cup has stood as the ultimate test of prowess in the shorter form of the game.

But the world's governing body has felt the need to further codify team's respective standings.

The ICC points to ranking systems that already exist in other sports outside the major events such as FIFA's world football rankings.

But the difference here is that a trophy will be awarded to the leaders of the new table, as with the Test Championship mace.

With 50 one-day internationals taking place before the World Cup and then the tournament itself, there is a chance that this trophy will change hands during the showpiece event.

Chief executive Malcolm Speed is clear that there is no conflict between the two prizes.

"The focus will be on the major event which is the World Cup final," he says.

"They will run in parallel as this is an ongoing ranking system but in the scheme of things the World Cup has priority."

With four years between every tournament the ICC felt the need to give more meaning to the more humdrum internationals.

"The system was designed together with five chief executives of Test playing nations to provide further context for one-day internationals," Speed explains.

"It means all matches will be meaningful and all matches will be played flat out."

More competitive

This aspect was highlighted by Lord Condon of the ICC's anti-corruption unit when he suggested that matches needed to be more competitive to stamp out match-fixing.

The ICC admits that this is one of the rationales behind the new system, but it stops short of suggesting that this was the sole inspiration for the scheme.

The system that will be used differs from that devised for the Test Championship in several key aspects.

Firstly, the points accrued in the table are dependent on match-by-match results rather than series.

And secondly the strength of the opposition will be taken into account.

The results used to calculate the rankings are taken over a three-year period against whatever opposition each side plays.