The International Cricket Council had introduced the World Test Championship to make the longer format of the game more exciting and viewer-friendly, but new ICC Chairman Greg Barclay has admitted that the concept has its flaws and has not been able to deliver what it had promised.
He further added that the Covid-19 pandemic has only worsened the purpose of the competition and has questioned if the Test Championship has a place in the current situation.
“In short, I don’t think so (that the World Test Championship has been a boost to Test cricket),” Barclay said during a virtual media conference for wire services. “The COVID has probably highlighted its shortcomings of the championship. …the issues that we have already got, I wonder whether some of it was because of an attempt to develop a Test Championship, clearly designed to drive interest back into Test cricket, provide a bit of context and relevance around the Test matches.
“From an idealist’s point of view, probably it had a lot of merit but practically, I do disagree, I am not sure whether it has achieved what it intended to do,” he added.
The governing council had recently redesigned the points system in the Championship, changing it to a percentage allocation keeping in mind the international schedule that had been changed due to the pandemic. The percentages were calculated by taking into account the points won and the points contested.
Based on the recent points system, Australia leapfrogged India to the top of the standings with a points percentage of 82.2, while India had a points percentage of 75.
The idea of the tournament had been criticized initially as it was not a round-robin league, with the teams having a large say in the teams they play against. Not all teams play against each other, and the sides that do not play the top-ranked teams have an easier route to the finals. The home-away matches were not weighed differently either, which meant that teams that won at home and did not have a successful record away could still advance to the finals.
Each Test series also had a fixed number of points up for grabs (120), which meant that if two teams played five Tests in a series, they would just get 24 points for a win, while a win fetched 60 points if it was a two-match series.