ICC unveils new points system for World Test Championship 2021-23 cycle

By
Babita Sarkar
-
0
New Zealand with the World Test Championship Mace in Southampton

Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday announced the points system for the second edition of the World Test Championship (WTC), which will begin with the 5-match Test series between India and England from August 4.

“Each match of the second WTC will be contested for the same number of points – 12 for a win, four for a draw and six for a tie, moving away from the previous system where the same number of points were allocated to each series, divided across the number of matches played,” ICC said in a release.

In the inaugural edition of the WTC, each Test series carried 120 points. The teams which were playing the five-match Test series were at a big disadvantage as compared to teams that were playing the two-match Test series. A team winning a Test in a two-match series got 60 points compared to five-game series where a Test win is valued at 24 points only.

The ICC was criticised in the last cycle after it decided to change the points system in the middle of the tournament as some of the matches couldn’t get completed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the second edition of the WTC, nine teams will play six series each, three home and three away within March 31, 2023.

ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said the changes had been made to simplify the points system. “We received feedback that the previous points system needed to be simplified. The Cricket Committee took this into consideration when proposing a new, standardized points system for each match. It maintained the principle of ensuring that all matches in a WTC series count towards a team’s standing, while accommodating series varying in length between two Tests and five Tests,” he said

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR