The ICC ODI Championship is an international One Day International cricket competition run by the International Cricket Council. The competition is notional in that it is simply a ranking scheme overlaid on the regular ODI match schedule. After every ODI match, the two teams involved receive points based on a mathematical formula. The total of each team's points total is divided by the total number of matches to give a rating, and all teams are ranked on a table in order of rating.
By analogy to cricket batting averages, the points for winning an ODI match are always greater than the team's rating, increasing the rating, and the points for losing an ODI match are always less than the rating, reducing the rating. A drawn match between higher and lower rated teams will benefits the lower-rated team at the expense of the higher-rated team. An "average" team that wins as often as it loses while playing a mix of stronger and weaker teams should have a rating of 100.
As of 24 September 2012, South Africa lead the ICC ODI Championship with a rating of 124, while the lowest rated team, Kenya, has a rating of 0.
Read more about ICC ODI Championship: Qualification, Points, Ranking Table, Associate Rankings, Trophy