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What is ICC’s new system of calculating points in World Test Championship?

With the new World Test Championship points table being released by ICC, some people would be wondering how India slipped down from no. 1 to no. 2 in the standings despite no Test matches played at all in the last couple of months.

The reason behind that is that ICC has changed the method of calculating the points in the World Test Championship and because of the new system being introduced, the positions of different teams have changed. Some of the teams which were at the lower positions in the points table have now suddenly jumped to the top positions, while the top teams have slipped down.

What was the old system of calculating points in World Test Championship?

Earlier at the time the World Test Championship (WTC) was started, it was decided that every team would be playing the same no. of Test series at home and same no. away and at the end of it all, the two teams with the most no. of points would qualify for the final of the championship.

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But, because of the lockdown for most parts of this year, a lot of teams missed quite a few of their scheduled Test series and it’s now impossible for all the teams to play all the Test series that were scheduled at the start of the World Test Championship.

So, if ICC had kept the old system going, it would have been unfair on a few teams because not all the teams would have played the same no. of Test series and some of the teams having played lesser number of Test series would obviously have had lesser number of points.

To make it a fair and a just system for all the teams, the ICC shifted the system from an absolute point calculation to percentage point calculation.

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What is the percentage point calculation in World Test Championship?

Every Test series in WTC is worth 120 points. So, if a team has played 3 Test series, then they contested for a total of 360 points, while a team which played 4 Test series contested for a total of 480 points.

Now, their position in the points table will be determined by the percentage of their points to the total no. of points they contested for.

For example – Some people can’t understand why Australia, despite having only 296 points, is ahead of India which has got a total of 360 points.

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That’s because Australia has played only 3 Test series so far, so they have contested for 360 points out of which they have earned 296 points and the percentage of their points earned is 82.22.

India, on the other hand, has played 4 Test series which means they have contested for 480 points out of which they have earned 360 points. The percentage of the points earned by India is 75 which is lesser than the percentage of the points earned by Australia.

India’s percentage of points earned was 100 at the start of this year as they had won the 7 Test matches played within their first 3 Test series in the WTC, but in their 4th Test series against New Zealand earlier this year, they suffered a 0-2 whitewash which brought their percentage down to 75.

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India is now going to play a Test series against Australia and hence, will have the opportunity to displace Australia from the top of the table because both the teams will be contesting for 120 points again and the result of every Test match will affect their percentage and hence their respective positions in the WTC points table.

Abhishek

I write a bit on cricket and I am more interested in technical and tactical side of the game, rather than bravado.

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