The problem is players like Gonzo. He was freakishly awesome when he played, but will probably never play a one dayer again due to his infrequent activity. He'd just be stuck at the top forevermore though due to what he did when he was playing - the rankings would never give a true account.
But doesn't time frame come into effect in the rankings? The effect of Gonzo's awesome previous form would diminish over time and thus the rankings would stabilise too. Especially given there hasn't been that much OD stuff in the past. Alternatively, you could restart the rankings from now, and whilst you might still have the problem where someone goes inactive overnight, their post rank will take a while to fall down the list and thus they'll end up playing a few games where their ability has decreased and their ranking suffers as a result. As a third option, come up with a new algorithm where the effect of timeframe is more pronounced - i.e. recent form is more important.
Yeah gun point, but surely there'd be an alternate solution, like, not have rankings this season, but like, record ranking points, and once we've had a season install rankings with the rankings starting from R1S9 (if that makes sense.
So do I. Rewarding activity had to be done. I don't know why people want rankings though, they mean nothing.
Yeah I think the new format is gun, but, I just think the rankings make it more interesting, and just make it better, allow decent comparison between players, and it's just "more fun"
Old games certainly become less relevant as time goes on, but unfortunately it works on average performances rather than an aggregate points system. It'd work perfectly if we had a Second XI competition running that Gonzo could play and fail in, as those recent performances would count more than his past successes, but without any recent performances to count against his glory years they would reign supreme. I'm actually working on a points-based system that would do exactly what you're suggesting, but it's not ready yet and until it is there will be no rankings.
It helps people get validation for their existence, I suspect. Or at least it would provide them validation for being on Cricsim all the time.