The International Cricket Council (ICC) is currently working on finalizing the playing conditions for the upcoming final of the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) between India and New Zealand, to be played at the Rose Bowl in Southampton, England starting from June 18.
Times of India reported that ICC will announce the playing conditions this week.
There is much confusion about what happens if the match ends in a draw. When the WTC was formulated, the ICC had stated in its FAQs that a reserve day would be kept for the final. However, interestingly, that clause has been taken off from the ICC website. It was also stated that if the match ended in a draw, both teams would be declared joint winners.
As per the initial plans, the reserve day would have kicked in if there were any hours lost in the first five days of the match.
"The idea was to ensure that the match is played out in the 30 hours in the first five days. And the reserve day would come into play only if a total of 30 hours were not played in the first five days. That would have meant that the result had a lesser chance of being influenced by weather," an ICC source told TOI.
However the ambiguity about the ‘hours of play' has led to this confusion as ICC needs to factor in the possible slow over rates too. A five-day match is supposed to have a maximum of 450 overs.
"The idea of having joint winners also doesn't sit very well given it's the first time a WTC final is being played. So, one has to have maximum options open to get a result out of the match. The ICC committee is working on it and it should be out this week," the source added.
Furthermore, TOI has reported that the fate of WTC will be discussed at the ICC board meeting on June 1.
While launching the WTC in 2019 ICC had announced it will continue with the championship in the 2021-23 cycle as well. The first series in the WTC 2021-23 cycle is supposed to be the five-Test matches India is scheduled to play in England a month after the WTC final.
However many in the council have been skeptical about the success of the tournament, including new ICC chairman Greg Barclay, who had said that the WTC hasn't achieved what it intended to.
(Times of India inputs)
