New Zealand has won the inaugural World Test Championship and the spectacle of the Final attracted attention from around the world. Leading websites like Cricinfo, Online Cricket Betting, Cricviz, and others reported a spike in interest, and Test cricket as a whole looks to have been elevated. The next two-year cycle is about to start and teams will be keen to make every game count.
There are a couple of important changes to the points system that have been instituted by the ICC to try and make things a bit fairer.
Here is what you need to know.
Each Match is Worth 12 Points
The first WTC leg valued each series the same, 120 points, and then divided those points among the matches. This actually put teams that were playing a four or five-match series away from home at a disadvantage.
This has now been rectified and now each match is going to be worth 12 points. This is the same for a two-test series or a five-test series. We think this is a fairer method and will make every match count.
Teams can earn 4 points for a Draw and 6 for a Tie if one does happen. Perhaps the most crucially, teams are going to be docked one point for every over that they are found short of at the end of the match.
This is a serious penalty of poor over-rate and is going to cost the teams very heavily. We could see the over-rates being given a lot more importance in this leg of the WTC.
Unequal Matches
Some things have remained the same in this cycle of the WTC, namely the fact that not all teams are going to be playing against each other. Teams are also not playing an equal number of matches that makes the entire process a bit difficult to understand.
England will play the most matches (21) while India and Australia are close behind with 19 and 18 matches as well. Bangladesh is going to play the least amount of matches with just 12 matches scheduled in the entire cycle.
We are hoping to get the odds on Betway very soon to see how they rank the teams for the next world cup.
Percentage of Wins to remain
The pandemic forced the ICC to consider the percentage of points on offer won instead of the total points since a number of series either had to be postponed or canceled altogether. It appears, though, that it likes this system and has decided to implement it for the next WTC cycle as well.
Teams will be ranked on the basis of the number of points that they win from the total available to them. This will take out any uncertainty that might come from matches being canceled as the pandemic continues to linger around the world or due to political tensions that can sometimes flare up between member countries.
