ICC announces new points system for World Test Championship

The ICC on Wednesday announced a new points system for the second edition of the World Test Championship. The new edition of the tournament will begin on August 4 when India meet England in the first of five-Test series at Trent Bridge.

Doing away with the old points system where every team contested for 120 points in a series irrespective of the number of matches, each game in the new edition will be contested for the same number of points.

12 points will be awarded for a win, four for a draw and six for a tie. The percentage points will still be used to determine the standings.

“We received feedback that the previous points system needed to be simplified. The Cricket Committee took this into consideration when proposing a new, standardised points system for each match,” said ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice in a statement from ICC.

“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,” Allardice added.

Likewise, the ICC have dropped the 60-point-per-match system for two match series, 40-points-per-match for three, 30-points-per-match for four and 24-point-per-match for five.

“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,” Allardice said about the new points system.

All the top nine test playing nations competing in WTC will host three series and play three series abroad. The cut-off date for the championship will be March 31, 2023.

“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.