WTC 2021-23: ICC announces new Points System, Fixtures of tournament

The International Cricket Council has announced the new points system for the second cycle of the World Test Championship. The governing body has also released the fixtures of the WTC.

Meanwhile, the previous points system was criticised by many experts as the team playing five match Test series were getting the same points as the team playing two-match Test series.

The maximum points which a team could have bagged in the first cycle of WTC was 120 points in one particular series irrespective of the number of matches. However, now the ICC has come up with a far better revised points system. Every team will get 12 points for a win, six for a tie, and four for a draw. No points will be awarded for any loss.

100% percentage points will be given for a win, 50 for a tie and 33.3 for a draw.

“We received feedback that the previous points system needed to be simplified,” ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said. “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.”

Meanwhile, nine teams will once again contest for a place in the final, with the top two meeting in the standings to go to the final.

Every team will play six series, three of which will be played in home conditions whereas three will be played overseas. The cut off dates for all the series will be 31st March 2023.

The five-match Test series between England and India will kick off the second cycle of WTC 2021-23.