The International Cricket Council (ICC) has said that it will tweak the points system of the World Test Championship from the second cycle of the competition.
In an interaction with journalists, ICC interim CEO Geoff Allardice said that teams will be awarded a ‘standardised' number of points for each win instead of the prevalent system where a series was allotted maximum points.
The point system ran through a controversy last year when the ICC changed the criteria for the rankings on the points table to the preexisting points system to the percentage of points in wake of the cancellation of multiple series due to Covid-19.
“We have looked at this at the end of this cycle as well and we have the second cycle starting in a month and a half and there will be some tweaks to the points system. We can put in a standardised number of points for per Test match, so that it doesn’t matter whether it’s a two Test series or a five-Test series, so same number of points will be available for each match that’s played. But every team will be judged on percentage of points its wins and not on total,” Allardice said.
Allardice also accepted the argument made by Indian coach Ravi Shastri that the fate of the World Test Championship should have been decided by a three-match series instead of a one-off Test match, but cited constrained cricketing calendar behind not opting for a series that would take a month time.
“In a perfect world, a three Test series would be a great way to decide the WTC but reality of international cricket schedule is such that we are not going to get a month. Blocking out a month for all team tournament final isn’t realistic, so that’s why one match final was decided upon. Why it’s quite exciting is it brings in something new. We have a one-off Test match to decide we have the best Test team in the world,” Allardice reckoned.
Explaining the reason behind ICC approving a reserve day for the World Test Championship fina, Allardice said that the body was looking to avoid the situation of teams playing with different priorities and not a common goal of outrightly winning the contest. However, he said that the reserve day will be in effect only if there will be overs lost due to bad weather and if neither team can register a victory, a draw would be a ‘fair result.’
“One of the idiosyncracies of Test cricket is that draw is a result. We didn’t want to start the final with one team having to win and one team looking for draw. Both teams start on Friday even and five playing days to get a result and we have a reserve day so that if time is lost, it can made up on the reserve day. It isn’t a six-day Test match. And after five days if we don’t get a winner, whether you like it or not, draw is a fair result in Test cricket,” he concluded.
India and New Zealand will lock horns in the WTC final scheduled to start on June 16 in Southampton.