World Test Championship: ICC's move to revive classic game of cricket

ICC has seen the future of test cricket sinking in front of its eyes and now it has made a spectacular grand comeback with WTC

With an attempt to revive the real essence of cricket, the ICC has come up with an idea of World Test Championship (WTC) that has kickstarted from August 1, 2019, with Ashes. Now everyone must be thinking that this championship is going to be like the World Cup but it is completely different, it has a unique format as the tournament will go on for almost 2 years till 2021. The WTC has been brought in with a purpose to add context to bilateral test series and the finalists of the tournament will meet at Lord’s in London in June 2021. The next two-year cycle is scheduled from June 2021 to April 30, 2023.

This test championship is a piece of good news for cricket fans and the cricketing fraternity as the game of cricket itself lies in the test format. The game initially was played for the time span of five days and then it evolved over the years to ODI’s and now T20s in an attempt to make each and every individual a fan of cricket through shorter formats. These days people do not have the patience to sit for five days and watch the same two teams compete against each other. And in this journey of the fast-paced world, somewhere the real game of cricket lost its path. And now ICC has made efforts to bring back the boss of cricket formats through ETC and surely fans are going to love it.

Initially, to hold a Test Championship was proposed back in 2010 and the plan was to organize the tournament in 2013, replacing the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. But somehow, the idea was scrapped and pushed forward to 2017 and that too didn’t work out. And the plan to hold the Test Championship in 2019 was put forth in October 2017 which today all we can see has worked out well.

Who are eligible to play World Test Championship

The top nine teams in the world will be playing WTC which are Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies. These teams will compete in 71 test matches across 27 series which will be played in the time span of two years and the top two teams will be playing the finals. The winner will be crowned as the ICC World Test Champion.

So the format is going to very simple, there is going to be a points table where the points will be given to the winning team after every game. Each team is required to play three home and three away series and the teams have chosen their opponents mutually.

Each series counts for 120 points, distributed over the number of matches in a series. For example, a two-match series will mean 60 points for each Test while a three-match series will give 40 points to each Test match. A tie will be 50 percent of the points available, whilst a draw will be a 3:1 points ratio.

This tournament is going to play an important role in the careers of the younger generation who has stepped into it when only commercialization of the cricket is the talk of the town. And these young players are completely out of sight of what the real game of cricket stands for. Therefore, in order to make them understand and build patience in them, this step was vital. This is because if a player can battle in test cricket then he can survive any other format.

The captains of all the top nine teams have shown the positive response for the WTC. For the Indian skipper Virat Kohli, the WTC is a much-awaited tournament and he believes it will be a very challenging one. It is true that the traditional form of cricket is nothing but satisfying and the youngsters will get to learn infinite things from this championship.

Distribution of Points

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	0
4	30	15	10	0
5	24	12	8	0

India's schedule for World Test Championship

India is right now the World number one test team and will start its WTC campaign with two test matches in the West Indies by August end. After that, the team is scheduled to play against South Africa, Bangladesh, and England at home and have away tours of Australia and New Zealand later.

ICC has seen the future of test cricket sinking in front of its eyes and now it has made a spectacular grand comeback with this much-awaited dream of kickstarting WTC. And to add to the delight of this, for the very first time, all the venues across England are already sold out for Ashes and this has happened for the first time ever.

However, from the time when the Twenty20 cricket leagues have picked up its pace, which also includes the much-hyped Indian Premier League, the cricket’s governing body must be hoping that this test Championship will keep the cricket fans across the globe engaged with the longest and the oldest form of the sport.

The Test format of cricket is like a classic book that can be appreciated and read all over again across generations and should be passed on. Test cricket has a longevity that will keep the richness of the format for years to come that the coming generations will cherish.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are the personal views of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)