ICC To Change WTC Qualification Rules; Equal Points For Every Test Victory: Report

India will play against England, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Australia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh between the period of August 2021 to June 2023 in WTC 2.

Image: AFP

New Delhi: International Cricket Council (ICC) has released a new schedule for the World Test Championship (WTC) 2. India vs England Pataudi series that is to be played from August 4 will mark the start of a new cycle of WTC. 

India will play against England, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Australia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh between the period of August 2021 to June 2023. ICC did announce some changes in the rules of the format for the second edition of WTC. 

In this cycle, each team plays six series' with three series at home and three away. England vs India and Australia vs England (The Ashes) are the only two 5-match series in the entire WTC cycle. Rest all the matches are either two or three-Test match series with an exception of Australia vs India series that will have four matches. 

12 Points For Each Win

The major change that has taken place is the introduction of rating teams per match. In the first edition of WTC Final, each series consisted of 120 points, thus a lot of boards complained that this system was unfair as it gives an unruly advantage to teams playing 2-match series'. Thus, in the new system, each team will get 12 points for a win, 4 for a draw and 6 for a tie. 

There's another rule about negative marking. Teams will lose 1 point for slow over-rate. One point will be deducted for every over that the team falls behind.  

ICC's acting chief executive Geoff Allardice (to ESPNCricinfo) said, "Instead of each series being worth the same number of points, 120, irrespective of whether the series is played over two Tests or five Tests, the next cycle will see each match being worth the same number of points - a maximum of 12 per match. Teams will be ranked on the percentage of available points they won from the matches they have played. The aim was to try and simplify the points system and to allow teams to be meaningfully compared on the table at any point, though they may have played differing numbers of matches and series."