The 2019–21 ICC World Test Championship will be the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship of Test cricket.[1] It will start in July 2019 and finish with a final in England in June 2021.[2] It comes nearly a decade after the International Cricket Council (ICC) first approved the idea for a World Test Championship in 2010, and following two cancelled attempts to hold the inaugural competition in 2013 and 2017.
It will feature nine of the twelve Test playing nations,[3][4] each of whom will play a Test series against six of the other eight teams. Each series will consist of between two and five matches, so although all teams will play six series (three at home and three away), they will not play the same number of Tests. Each team will be able to score a maximum of 120 points from each series and the two teams with the most points at the end of the league stage will contest the final.
Some of the Test series in this Championship are part of a longer ongoing series, such as the 2019 Ashes series. Also, some of these nine teams will play additional Test matches during this period which are not part of this Championship, as part of the ICC Future Tours Programme for 2018–23, mainly to give games to the three Test playing sides not taking part in this competition.
Contents
The tournament will be played over two years. Each team will play six other opponents, three at home and three away. Each series will consist of between two and five Test matches. Therefore all participants will not play the same number of Tests, but will play the same number of series. At the end of the league stage the top two teams will play a final in England in June 2021.[5] Each match will be scheduled for a duration of 5 days.
Point scoring[edit]
The ICC decided that the same number of points will be available from each series, regardless of series length, so that countries that play fewer Tests are not disadvantaged. It also decided that points will not be awarded for series results, but for match results only. These will be split equally between all the matches in the series, regardless of whether or not a match is a dead rubber.[6] In a five-match series, therefore, 20% of the points will be available each match, while in a two-match series, 50% of the points will be available each match.
Therefore, depending on whether the series is 2, 3, 4 or 5 matches long, the number of points awarded for a single match win will be a half, a third, a quarter, or a fifth of the maximum possible from the series. The ICC also decided that a tie should be worth half of a win and that a draw should be worth a third of a win.[7] This all means that after each match, a side could be awarded a half, a third, a quarter, a fifth, a sixth, an eighth, a ninth, a tenth, a twelfth or a fifteenth of the total points available from the series, depending on the result and how many matches the series happens to consist of. Ultimately, this means a figure for the total points available from the series needs to be picked very carefully, as not many numbers give all integers when split into all these different fractions (360 does). Being a highly composite number, when 120 is split into all these fractions, an integer is obtained in all cases except one.
Each series will therefore carry a maximum of 120 points with points distributed as follows.
| Matches in series | Points for a win | Points for a tie | Points for a draw | Points for a defeat |
|---|
| 2 | 60 | 30 | 20 | 0 |
| 3 | 40 | 20 | 13.3 | 0 |
| 4 | 30 | 15 | 10 | 0 |
| 5 | 24 | 12 | 8 | 0 |
Participants[edit]
The nine Full members of the ICC who will participate are:
Since each team is scheduled to play only six of the eight possible opponents, the ICC has been able to announce that India and Pakistan will not play against each other in the first and second editions of the tournament.
The three Full members of the ICC who will not participate are:
These are the three lowest ranked Full members of the ICC. They have been included in the ICC Future Tours Programme; they will play a number of Test matches during this period against Championship participants and each other (12 each for Ireland and Afghanistan, 21 for Zimbabwe[8]) but these will have no bearing on the Championship.[9]
Schedule[edit]
The schedule for the World Test Championship was announced by the ICC on 20 June 2018, as part of the 2018–2023 Future Tours Programme.[10] The Indian Premier League will prevent any matches from being played in the months of April and May.
First match(es) will be played on July 2019. Source:[citation needed]
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Therefore the total number of matches played by each team (home and away) in this tournament, and the two countries that each side will not face in this tournament, are as follows. (Note this is not the total Test matches played by each team during this period, as some countries will play further matches during this period which are not part of this Championship, as part of the ICC Future Tours Programme for 2018–23. Some of these may be against the opponents they do not play in this Championship.)
Variations in strength of opponents[edit]
Rather than being a full round-robin tournament in which everyone plays everyone else equally, each team plays only six of the other eight. Each team plays a different set of opponents, and so has an easier or harder schedule. For example, New Zealand do not play England and South Africa, two of the highest ranked teams, whereas Australia do not play Sri Lanka and West Indies, two of the lowest ranked teams. Therefore New Zealand appears to have an advantage over Australia.
Also, while there is a balance with all teams playing three series at home and three series away, this is not the case with the individual matches. For example, India play ten Tests at home and eight away, whereas the West Indies play just six at home and nine away.
Four of the ‘biggest’ and highest-ranked nations (India, England, Australia and South Africa) all play each other, in some of the longest series of the whole Championship, and the teams these four nations do not play are generally lower-ranked nations.
As all the series are mutually agreed between the two nations involved,[11] this had led to allegations that the schedule has been agreed based on what will provide the biggest television audiences, and therefore television receipts,[12] rather than selecting an even spread of teams. This shows that success in this competition is not the only priority for these nations.
It potentially gives the lower-ranked teams an advantage, meaning they may finish higher in the league table than might otherwise be expected.
League stage[edit]
League table[edit]
Further information: International cricket in 2019
West Indies v India[edit]
Main article: Indian cricket team in the West Indies and the United States in 2019
Sri Lanka v New Zealand[edit]
Main article: New Zealand cricket team in Sri Lanka in 2019
England v Australia[edit]
Main article: 2019 Ashes series
2019–20[edit]
Further information: International cricket in 2019–20
India v South Africa[edit]
Main article: South African cricket team in India in 2019–20
Pakistan v Sri Lanka[edit]
Main article: Sri Lankan cricket team against Pakistan in the UAE in 2019–20
Australia v Pakistan[edit]
Main article: Pakistani cricket team in Australia in 2019–20
India v Bangladesh[edit]
Main article: Bangladeshi cricket team in India in 2019–20
Australia v New Zealand[edit]
Main article: New Zealand cricket team in Australia in 2019–20
South Africa v England[edit]
Main article: English cricket team in South Africa in 2019–20
Pakistan v Bangladesh[edit]
Main article: Bangladeshi cricket team against Pakistan in the UAE in 2019–20
Bangladesh v Australia[edit]
Main article: Australian cricket team in Bangladesh in 2019–20
New Zealand v India[edit]
Main article: Indian cricket team in New Zealand in 2019–20
Sri Lanka v England[edit]
Main article: English cricket team in Sri Lanka in 2019–20
England v West Indies[edit]
England v Pakistan[edit]
Sri Lanka v Bangladesh[edit]
West Indies v South Africa[edit]
Bangladesh v New Zealand[edit]
2020–21[edit]
Australia v India[edit]
New Zealand v West Indies[edit]
New Zealand v Pakistan[edit]
Bangladesh v West Indies[edit]
India v England[edit]
Pakistan v South Africa[edit]
South Africa v Sri Lanka[edit]
South Africa v Australia[edit]
West Indies v Sri Lanka[edit]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ “Test, ODI leagues approved by ICC Board”. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
- ^ “How will the Test championship be played?”. ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
- ^ “Schedule for inaugural World Test Championship announced”.
- ^ “Australia’s new schedule features Afghanistan Test”.
- ^ Association, Press (13 October 2017). “ICC approves Test world championship and trial of four-day and matches”. The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
- ^ Jump up to:a b “World Test Championship points system values match wins over series triumphs”.
- ^ “ICC outlines points plan for Test championship”.
- ^ Ireland, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe, like the nine Championship participants will be able to add further fixtures outside the FTP including Test matches.
- ^ Netherlands have also been included on the FTP as a one-day and T20 playing nation only.
- ^ “Men’s Future Tour Programme 2018-2023 released”. International Cricket Council. 20 June 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
- ^ “ICC Press Release”. The sides will play six series in the two-year cycle on a home and away basis against opponents they have mutually selected
- ^ “World Test Championship is confusing, albeit well-meaning attempt to add context to bilateral cricket”.
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