The World Test Championship was launched in 2019 and aims to add context to bilateral cricket with each match contributing towards a team’s standing. Each cycle lasts two years with the final being contested between the top two teams. The nine full members of the ICC will participate in the tournament: Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka.
This year’s championship final was held at Lord’s, where reigning champions Australia were defeated by South Africa. Despite a chorus of criticism over the competition’s format, most notably from Wisden, which called it “a shambles masquerading as a showpiece”, the event is generally considered to be boosting interest in the longest form of the game.
The governing body’s new league system essentially rewards teams for putting together a consistent series of results by awarding them points on a percentage basis. This is a significant improvement over the previous system whereby a team’s standing was decided by their number of wins, losses and draws in a calendar cycle.
The system also takes into account the fact that the more Tests a team plays, the more opportunities they have to earn points in a given cycle. That has led to some wildly different paths taken by the two finalists: South Africa reached the final without facing either Australia or England, while England’s comparatively light fixture schedule saw them lose points through over-rate penalties throughout the 2023-2025 cycle.
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