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On Thursday, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced changes to the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) points system. As per the international apex body, the changes were made due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The alterations in the points system saw Australia surpassing India to claim the top position.
Now, under this new concept, the WTC league standings would be determined by the percentage of points earned by teams. This is the reason why Australia have managed to occupy the No.1 spot as they have points percentage of 82.22 while India have 75%.
The apex body accepted the recommendation from the ICC Cricket Committee, headed by Anil Kumble. The committee recommended the changes considering that various series have been affected by the pandemic.
“Both the Cricket Committee and Chief Executives Committee supported the approach of ranking teams based on completed matches and points earned as this reflects their performance and doesn’t disadvantage teams that have been unable to compete for all of their matches through no fault of their own,” said Manu Sawhney, the CEO of ICC.
“We explored a whole range of options, but our members felt strongly that we should proceed as planned with the first-ever World Test Championship Final in June next year,” he added.
Here’s why India got a lower points percentage than Australia
According to ICC, the equation for the points percentage will be determined by points won by a team per points contested multiplied by 100.
Currently, India have 360 points in WTC standings whereas Australia have 296. But India have contested for more points (480) than Australia (360) which is why India have a lower points percentage as compared to Australia.
Current WTC standings
- Australia – 3 (Series Played) – 360 (Points Contested) – 296 (Pts Won) – 82.22 (Pts %)
- India – 4 (Series Played) – 480 (Points Contested) – 360 (Pts Won) – 75.00 (Pts %)
- England – 4 (Series Played) – 480 (Points Contested) – 292 (Pts Won) – 60.83 (Pts %)
- New Zealand – 3 (Series Played) – 360 (Points Contested) – 180 (Pts Won) – 50.00 (Pts %)
- Pakistan* – 3.5 (Series Played) – 420 (Points Contested) – 166 (Pts Won) – 39.52 (Pts %)
- Sri Lanka – 2 (Series Played) – 240 (Points Contested) – 80 (Pts Won) – 33.33 (Pts %)
- West Indies – 2 (Series Played) – 240 (Points Contested) – 40 (Pts Won) – 16.67 (Pts %)
- South Africa – 2 (Series Played) – 240 (Points Contested) – 24 (Pts Won) – 10.00 (Pts %)
- Bangladesh* – 2.5 (Series Played) – 300 (Points Contested) – 0 (Pts Won) – 00.00 (Pts %)
*Pakistan and Bangladesh have one match still remaining in their series
Soon, India and Australia will be locking horns in a four-Test series. As per the WCT system, each series is allotted 120 points. So, for a four-Test leg, points assigned per Test are 30 for a win, 15 for tie and 10 for a draw.
