ICC announces new points system for second World Test Championship

The International Cricket Council (ICC) officially
announced the new and standardised points system for the second World Test Championship
on Wednesday. Teams will get 12 points for a win, four for a draw and six for a
tie.

The second edition of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle will start
with a five-match series between India and England in August.

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In the first WTC, each Test series carried 120
points. This led to an inequality in the points table as a Test match win in a
two-match series would give the winning team 60 points while winning a match in
a five-match series would give the winners only 24 points.  

The points system has been standardised now and ICC
announced that percentage of points will be used to determine standing of teams
in the 2021–23 cycle.

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ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said the changes were made to
simplify the points system while taking learnings from the disruption last
year.

“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,” Allardice said in a statement.

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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, he added.

Apart from the India-England series, the Ashes later this year will be the
only other five-match affair in the second cycle of the World Test Championship
which will end in June 2023.

The nine Test teams will play a total of six series — three home and three
away just like the previous edition.

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India captain Virat Kohli said that he expects his side to regroup with new
energy in the new cycle after having lost the inaugural WTC final.

Defending champion and New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson said that WTC
has revived people’s interest in the traditional format of the game.