This is to my personal feeling, that ICC has been treating World Test Championship as a formality to comply because of the format I am seeing, when I compare it with Asian Test Championship which was between Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka (1998-99 and 2001-02 season sans India due to political tensions with Pakistan) and Bangladesh (in the second edition viz 2001-02, due to test status granted by ICC in 2000s)
The Asian Test Championship
1998-99 season
India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka competed in the inaugural Asian Test Championship between February and March 1999. Bangladesh could not compete because the ICC had not granted them Test status.
Three round-robin matches were played by the three competing sides. A win was worth 12 points, a tie 6 points and no points were awarded for a draw or loss. In addition to this, bonus points were awarded to teams for bowling and batting performances.
The venues of the round robin matches were rotated between the three countries, with the final to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh as a neutral venue.
Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka by an innings and 175 runs in the final to become the first Asian Test Champions.
The original plans to hold the competition in 2013, replacing the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, were abandoned. It was rescheduled for June 2017, with a second Test championship to take place in India in Feb-March 2021. The top four ranked teams on 31 December 2016 – the cut-off date set by the ICC – would play the three-match Test championship. There would have been two semi-finals and the winners play the final. However, in January 2014 the ICC World Test Championship was cancelled and the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy was reinstated.
In October 2017, the ICC announced that a Test league had been agreed by its members, which would involve the top nine teams playing series over two years with the top two teams qualifying for a World Test League Championship Final. The first ICC World Test Championship started after the 2019 Cricket World Cup from 1 August 2019, with the Ashes series. The second ICC World Test Championship will run from July 2021 to June 2023.
Hence my objection is ambiguity in distribution of points, otherwise the number of games per series was to be confirmed/implemented by ICC, here implementation aspect is being diluted and hence every participating team HAS BEEN allowed to negotiate with fellow country to arrange a series with number of games which defy uniformity, unlike a series distributed by ICC, which doesn't complies with a championships points table, hence a country can stage more 2 test match series and few 4 5 test match series, in order to gain more points, which is like injustice WITHIN a CHAMPIONSHIP for few teams and hence it is a predicted aspect that these two teams are going to be the finalists, which is going to erase the interest of test match cricket within the masses, because the concept of a championship is the unpredictability of the final outcome.
Three round-robin matches were played by the three competing sides. A win was worth 12 points, a tie 6 points and no points were awarded for a draw or loss. In addition to this, bonus points were awarded to teams for bowling and batting performances.
The venues of the round robin matches were rotated between the three countries, with the final to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh as a neutral venue.
Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka by an innings and 175 runs in the final to become the first Asian Test Champions.
2001-02 season
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka competed in the second Asian Test Championship between August 2001 and March 2002. India pulled out of the tournament due to political tensions with Pakistan.
Pakistan and Sri Lanka both played Bangladesh in the two round robin
matches. A win was worth 16 points, a tie 8 points and no points were
awarded for a draw or loss. In addition to this, bonus points were
awarded to teams for bowling and batting performances. Pakistan and Sri Lanka qualified for the final after convincingly beating Bangladesh in Multan Cricket Stadium in Pakistan and Colombo in Sri Lanka.
The final was held at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan. Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan by 8 wickets to win the second Asian Test championship.
ICC World Test Championship
The ICC World Test Championship is a league competition for Test cricket run by the International Cricket Council (ICC), which started on 1 August 2019. It is intended to be the premier championship for Test cricket. It is in line with the ICC's goal of having one pinnacle tournament for each of the three formats of international cricket.The original plans to hold the competition in 2013, replacing the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, were abandoned. It was rescheduled for June 2017, with a second Test championship to take place in India in Feb-March 2021. The top four ranked teams on 31 December 2016 – the cut-off date set by the ICC – would play the three-match Test championship. There would have been two semi-finals and the winners play the final. However, in January 2014 the ICC World Test Championship was cancelled and the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy was reinstated.
In October 2017, the ICC announced that a Test league had been agreed by its members, which would involve the top nine teams playing series over two years with the top two teams qualifying for a World Test League Championship Final. The first ICC World Test Championship started after the 2019 Cricket World Cup from 1 August 2019, with the Ashes series. The second ICC World Test Championship will run from July 2021 to June 2023.
Difference between ICC WTC and ATC
Home & Away
Asian Test Championship
The Asian Test Championship (ATC) was on the concept of round robin where matches were played on home and away concept, though it was a short tournament, means 3 teams completing their games and playing final inside 2 months mark. The first tournament games were played at Kolkata, Colombo, Lahore and Dhaka respectively. In the second season, games were played at Multan, Colombo and Lahore respectively.
ICC World Test Championship
There is no clarity on home & away games, I am not saying this with respect to India-Pakistan games but if it is to be called as a championship, every team competing in the championship is supposed to be playing with each other.
Take example of Pakistan
These are the games, Pakistan have played 5 games against 3 opponents where 2/5 means 40% of the games were lost by heavy margins, and 2/5 means 40% of the margin were win games and remaining 1/5 means 20% margin was a draw game; hence how could it be called as a championship, when Pakistan isn't going to play game with rest of the competing sides, nor there is a competition like in a championship? The most obvious definition of a championship was defined in last year ICC 50 over Cricket World Cup event, where every team was to play with other team, so there was a competition aspect among the teams, and there Pakistan missed the Semi Final spot just by mere points because of the haunting first game of the CWC 2019 for Pakistan which was against WINDIES (previously known as the West Indies)
Definition of Championship
a competition at which a champion is chosen
Hence in which matter, does it look like a championship? Because in a championship, equal amount of games are given to each and every participating team so that a champion team is decided upon completion of minimum amount of games, so that a clear champion could be decided upon the designated points and performance(s).
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| According to ICC calendar for 2020, these are the games for Pakistan scheduled |
Hence in coming fixtures in 2020 for Pakistan, there are only 3 scheduled games; hence my question is ambiguity in Home/Away games for competing teams!
Number of games per series
It is a good thing that winning a game is 60, as according to the laid down plan, ICC WTC games could at least be 2 games per series, but the problem is instead ICC intervene and have standardized number of games per series so that points could be allocated, as the points allocation distribution is as follows;
| Matches in series | Points on a win | Points when tied | Points in a draw game | Points in case of a loss game |
| 2 | 60 | 30 | 20 | 0 |
| 3 | 40 | 20 | 13 | 0 |
| 4 | 30 | 15 | 10 | 0 |
| 5 | 24 | 12 | 8 | 0 |
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