ICC announces the new points system and full fixtures of World Test Championship 2021-23

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Here are the complete fixtures of WTC 2021-23

On Wednesday, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed the changes done in the points system for the second edition of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23. The second phase of WTC will begin with England versus India Test series in August.

From now on, each match of the upcoming WTC will be contested for the same number of points, i.e., 12 for a win, 6 for a tie, and 4 for a draw.

In the previous cycle, each Test series carried a value of 120 points which led to some sort of inequality in the table as a team winning a Test in a two-match series got 60 points compared to a five-game leg where a Test win is valued at 24 points.

While announcing the changes in the points system, ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said the modifications have been made to simplify the points system.

“We received feedback that the previous points system needed to be simplified. The Cricket Committee considered this 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,” said Allardice in a statement.

“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.

Just like the first edition of the championship, in WTC 2 as many as nine teams will play six series each, comprising of three home and three away series.

ICC also announced the fixtures of WTC 2021-23 of all teams. Apart from the England-India series, the Ashes 2021-22 later this year will be the only other five-match affair. Similarly, Australia’s tour to India next year is the only 4-match leg in the upcoming cycle.