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World Test Championship: ICC confirms fixtures for next edition

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

WTC

Bengaluru, July 14: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed the points system for the second edition of the World Test Championship (WTC) as well as the bilateral series that will be part of the 2021-23 cycle commencing with England's home series against India starting in Nottingham on August 4.

As in the first edition of the championship, the nine teams will play six series each, three home and three away with the cut-off date being March 31, 2023.

Each match of the upcoming WTC will now be contested for the same number of points - 12 for a win, four for a draw and six for a tie, moving away from the previous system where the same number of points were allocated to each series, divided across the number of matches played.

An ICC Media release quoted Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice as saying that the changes had been 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, standardised 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.

"During the pandemic we had to change to ranking teams on the points table using the percentage of available points won by each team. 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."

Williamson excited

WTC champions New Zealand's captain Kane Williamson and his Indian and English counterparts (Virat Kohli and Joe Root) welcomed the new format and were looking forward to doing their best.

"It was obviously pretty special to win the inaugural ICC World Test Championship in Southampton last month and it's exciting to now look ahead to the second edition," said Williamson.

"We know trying to defend the title will be a huge challenge, but our focus will be on making sure we prepare as well as we can for the tours ahead and trying to maintain our level of performance," he added.

Kohli looks forward

"It was great to have played the final of the ICC World Test Championship against New Zealand in what was a memorable contest," said Kohli.

"We'll regroup with new energy for the next cycle starting with our series against England, hoping to give our fans a lot to cheer about," he added.

Root exudes confidence

"We start our campaign in the second edition of the ICC World Test Championship against the finalists of last time, which's an interesting challenge straight away," commented Root.

"India are a fine all-round side and it would be good to test them in our home conditions.

"We narrowly missed out on qualifying for the final last time and are looking to do better this time."

Story first published: Wednesday, July 14, 2021, 12:45 [IST]
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