It was revealed this week that the latest LG ICC player rankings rank Corey Collymore as the ninth best bowler in Test cricket.

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but that means that the ICC rank only eight bowlers in the world as better than the West Indies trundler.

Frankly, that's absolute rubbish. You know it. I know it. Gee, I bet even Corey himself knows it.

Is he really better than Shoaib Akhtar, ranked 10th? No. Better than Andrew Flintoff (11th)? No. Better than Chaminda Vaas (13th)? No. Better than Brett Lee (15th)? No. Better than Steve Harmison (18th)? Well, maybe...

As ridiculous as Collymore's placing is, the rankings do go a long way to revealing the truly desperate situation the West Indies find themselves in.

Their next highest bowler is Pedro Collins down in 31st - and he hasn't played a Test match in almost 12 months. In 39th spot comes Chris Gayle, a part-time off-spinner with 20 wickets in his last 15 matches, followed by Fidel Edwards in 41st.

The batting rankings offer a little more hope - but not much. Shivnarine Chanderpaul's 166 runs in the third Test have lifted him to 13th, a spot ahead of England's Alastair Cook.

Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan come next - but they are bunched together down in 29th, 31st and 24th position. Captain Daren Ganga comes in at a lowly 59th.

And that's the most depressing thing about this West Indies side: the more experienced players in the squad are offering almost as little as the youngsters.

As West Indies legend and Eurosport expert Ian Bishop noted in his column this week, the youngsters are doing almost as much as can possibly be asked of them. Gayle, Ganga and the other senior members of the touring squad need to show they have the same spirit.

Meanwhile, Monty Panesar's match figures of 10-187 saw him shoot up 14 places to 12th, meaning he is now the third ranked slow bowler in the world behind Muttiah Muralidaran of Sri Lanka and India's Anil Kumble.

And Alastair Cook also continued his rise up the rankings; his 166 runs at Old Trafford moved him up eight places to 13th, ahead of England colleagues Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell and Andrew Strauss.