ICC announces new points system for World Test Championship

The International Cricket Council has revealed the new points system for the next cycle of World Test Championship. The second cycle of the event will run between 2021 and 2023. The ICC confirmed that the teams will be ranked based on percentage of points won.

A total of 12 points will be available for each match. A win will 100 percent of the points, a tie will see 50 percent points (six points) for each team, and draw will fetch 4 points (or 33.33 percentile).

The points per series will be based on the number of matches in the series. The previous cycle had 120 points allotted per series irrespective of the number of matches.

“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," ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said.

“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,” he added.

As in the inaugural edition, nine Test teams will play six series each - three home and three away - with the cut-off date being March 31 2023.