After receiving criticism for the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) points system, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is set to overhaul it during the second edition.
On Monday (June 14), ICC interim CEO Geoff Allardice said all teams will get "same standardised number of points" for winning a game in the next WTC cycle.
In the first edition of WTC, each series had 120 points up for grabs. The number of points for each Test was equal to 120 divided by the total number of matches in the series.
However, the competition got ruined by the global COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in indefinite suspension of quite a few bilateral series. Consequently, the governing body adopted a percentage-based points model in order to keep the tournament on track.
"We have looked at this at the end of this cycle as well and we have the second cycle starting in a month and a half and there will be some tweaks to the points system," Allardice said during an interaction with select media outlets.
"...We can put in a standardised number of points for per Test match, so that it doesn't matter whether it's a two Test series or a five-Test series, so same number of points will be available for each match that's played.
"But every team will be judged on percentage of points its wins and not on total," he explained.
According to Allardice, India-New Zealand final after taking all postponements into account is a fair result.
"One of the things that happened during this cycle was that it became evident that not everyone was going to complete their six series as a result of postponements due to COVID," he reasoned.
"Because we have had teams playing uneven number of series, we made it a point to tweak the points system and make it as fair as possible and make sure that it reflected the matches that we did play rather then being influenced too heavily by the series we didn't play."
Allardice felt that it was a "fair system" as New Zealand didn't play one series due to COVID related postponements but they have still been able to qualify by the strength of their performance in the other series.
"We preferred to have not changed the points system in the middle of a tournament but (because of) the circumstances due to COVID, we needed to ensure that the best two teams got to the final."
Before departing to UK, India head coach Ravi Shastri had addressed the media and said that WTC final should be a three-match affair.
Sharing his two cents on Shastri’s idea, Allardice pointed out that it isn’t practical.
"In a perfect world, a three Test series would be a great way to decide the WTC but reality of international cricket schedule is such that we are not going to get a month."
"....blocking out a month for all team tournament final isn't realistic, so that's why one match final was decided upon. Why it's quite exciting is it brings in something new. We have a one-off Test match to decide we have the best Test team in the world."
As per the ICC rule, India and New Zealand will be crowned joint winners in case the regular five days of cricket in addition to the reserve day fail to bring a result.
"One of the idiosyncracies of Test cricket is that draw is a result. We didn't want to start the final with one team having to win and one team looking for draw," he said.
"Both teams start on Friday even and five playing days to get a result and we have a reserve day so that if time is lost, it can made up on the reserve day. It isn't a six-day Test match.
"And after five days if we don't get a winner, whether you like it or not, draw is a fair result in Test cricket," he concluded.
(With PTI inputs)
