The ICC on Wednesday confirmed the points system for the upcoming edition of the World Test Championship and announced the fixtures for the competition also. The ICC also said that the bilateral series’ will be part of the 2021-’23 cycle which kicks off in August.
All the Tests in the second edition of the WTC will be contested for the same number of points – 12 for a win, 4 for a draw and 6 for a tie. The points per series will also vary according to the number of matches. A defeat is of course 0 points.
9 teams will play 6 series each (3 home and 3 away) with the cut-off date being 31 March, 2023.
New Zealand won the inaugural edition of the Test Championship after they beat India in the final in Southampton in July.
India will play away from home against England, Bangladesh, and South Africa, while Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Australia are the home series' for Virat Kohli's side.
ICC’s Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said the changes had been made to simplify the points system after the disruptions from the previous edition.
“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.
“During the pandemic we had to change to ranking teams on the points table using the percentage of available points won by each team, since all series could not be completed. This helped us determine the finalists and we were able to complete the championship within the scheduled time frame. This method also allowed us to compare the relative performance of teams at any time, regardless of how many matches they had played.”
“It was obviously pretty special to win the inaugural ICC World Test Championship in Southampton last month and it’s exciting to now look ahead to the second edition. The WTC has certainly added more context and brought new meaning to Test cricket and it was awesome to see the interest that was generated around the Final against India. We know trying to defend the title will be a huge challenge, but our focus will be on making sure we prepare as well as we can for the tours ahead and trying to maintain our level of performance,” New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said.
“It was great to have played the final of the ICC World Test Championship against New Zealand in what was a memorable contest. Not just the final, we saw the determination of players throughout the first edition of the championship. The following of cricket lovers too was great to see, and I am sure they will all be waiting eagerly for the second edition. We will regroup with new energy for the next cycle starting with our series against England, hoping to give our fans a lot to cheer about,” Indian captain Virat Kohli said.
Like in the last edition, this time round too there are no India vs Pakistan Test matches scheduled.
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