The World Test Championship points system received plenty of criticism from fans and players alike during the inaugural edition. Which prompted the International Cricket Council to come up with a revised system for the second cycle of the competition. The ICC confirmed the schedule and points structure of the 2021-23 World Test Championship, which kicked off in August with India's five-Test series in England.
Points system for WTC 2021-23, teams will be ranked in terms of Percentage system. pic.twitter.com/eVC0U4vCWy
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) July 14, 2021
The previous rules were branded complex and Hence, WTC 2 was put in play with a new set of rules. Under the new set of rules, points will be awarded on a match-by-match basis as opposed to the series-by-series basis taking place in the 2019-21 cycle. Teams' rankings will be determined by the percentage of points won.
Old Rules
Under the old rules, ICC allotted points on a series basis. One Test series was worth a maximum of 120 points, with every team scheduled to play six series compromising home and away. Hence, a win in a two-match Test series was worth 60 points and 40 points for a Test win in a three-match series, with the maximum attainable points amounting to a total of 120. If it resulted in a draw, points were equally divided between the teams. But a drawn Test gave the teams only one-third of the points.
Change
But due to the unforeseen circumstances caused by covid-19. ICC had to change the rules midway. Before the start of the new edition, ICC acting chief executive Geoff Allardice said that the governing body took the feedback from the previous edition and decided to simplify the points distribution.
“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.”
“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,” - ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice
As it was in the first edition, the 2021-23 World Test Championship will see nine teams playing six series. Each team will play three home series and three away series.
WTC New Rules
As per the new format issued by ICC, teams will be awarded a total of 12 points for each match they win in this cycle, six for a tie, four for a draw, and zero for a loss. The points allocated per series will vary depending upon the number of matches in the series.
Matches in Series and Points:
| Matches | Points |
| 2 | 24 |
| 3 | 36 |
| 4 | 48 |
| 5 | 60 |
The teams, however, will be ranked based on the percentage of points won and not the overall tally. POP is the percentage of points won by a particular team out of the total number of points contested in a series.
** Points are also at stake for slow over-rates in the World Test Championship. Two points will be deducted from the total points a team earns if found guilty of a slow over-rate at the end of the game. The punishment doesn't end there, with the whole team being fined a certain match fee percentage. Which was the case after the first match between England and India, with both teams losing points for slow over-rate.
With all these new regulations in play, the second cycle of the World Test championship begins. Only time will show forth whether the changes made are for the better or with its own shortcomings and caveats. With the series between England and India setting start to the second season, what do you make of the new changes, and who do you think will be the winners of this edition.
