Format Test cricket Last tournament ongoing | First tournament 2003 Number of teams 10 | |
Administrator International Cricket Council Tournament format notional (ongoing points
accumulation through all matches played) | ||
The ICC Test Championship is an international competition run by the International Cricket Council in the sport of cricket for the 10 teams that play Test cricket. The competition is notional in the sense that it is simply a ranking scheme overlaid on all international matches that are otherwise played as part of regular Test cricket scheduling with no consideration of home or away status.
Contents
- Historical rankings
- Trophy
- ICC World Test Championship
- Test championship calculations
- Step 1 Find the series points for each team
- If the gap between the ratings of the two teams before the series was less than 40 points
- If the gap between the ratings of the two teams before the series was at least 40 points
- Step 3 Update the ranking table
- Example
- References
In essence, after every Test series, the two teams involved receive points based on a mathematical formula. Each team's points total is divided by their total number of matches played to give a 'rating', and the Test-playing teams are ranked by order of rating (this can be shown in a table).
A drawn match between higher and lower rated teams will benefit the lower-rated team at the expense of the higher-rated team. An 'average' team that wins as often as it loses while playing a mix of stronger and weaker teams should have a rating of 100.
The International Cricket Council awards a trophy, the ICC Test Championship mace, to the team holding the highest rating. The mace is transferred whenever a new team moves to the top of the rating list. The team that is top of the ratings table on 1 April each year also wins a cash prize, currently $1 million.
India are currently the highest-ranked team in the ICC Test Championship, having taken over at the top in October 2016 when they won their Test series 3-0 with New Zealand.
Historical rankings
The ICC provides ratings for the end of each month back to June 2003. The teams that have successively held the highest rating since that date, by whole month periods, are:
Since the ICC officially began ranking teams in 2003, Australia has dominated as it had done so in Test cricket since around 1995. However, from 2009, several teams (Australia, South Africa, India, England and Pakistan) have competed for the top positions.
The ICC recently applied its current rating system to results since 1952 providing ratings for the end of each month back to 1952 further indicating Australia's historical dominance in Test Cricket with the most consecutive months ranked first (95 months) from September 2001 to July 2009, the highest number of months ranked first (326 months) and the highest rating (143). The table only begins from 1952 as prior to this date, there is not enough data available due to the infrequency of matches and the small number of competing teams in the earlier periods.
The teams that have successively held the highest rating since January 1952 till May 2003, by whole month periods, are:
The summary of teams that have held the highest rating from 1952 to the present by whole month periods, are:
Trophy
Since 2001, the top-ranked Test team in the world has been awarded the ICC Test Championship mace. It is worth £30,000.
ICC World Test Championship
For the past few years there has been speculation that the ICC would introduce a Test Championship tournament, similar to that of the World Cup, Champions Trophy, World Twenty20 and ICC Intercontinental Cup.
ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat proposed a quadrennial tournament with the four best-performing nations meeting in the semi-finals and a final, in a bid to boost flagging interest in the longest form of the sport. The first tournament was meant to replace the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy in England and Wales. However, the Test championship was cancelled as the ICC stated that it was not supported by its broadcast partner – ESPN STAR Sports. This was mainly due to the fact that the broadcast of the Champions Trophy would generate much more revenue than a Test Championship.
Test championship calculations
Each team scores points based on the results of their matches over the last 3−4 years. A series must include at least two Tests.
The rankings table gives the total points from all series played in the 12–24 months since the May before last, plus all the series played in the 24 months before that, for which the matches played and points earned both count half. Each May, the matches and points earned between 3 and 4 years ago are removed, and the matches and points earned between 1 and 2 years ago switch from 100% weighting to 50% weighting. For example, at May 2014, the matches played between May 2010 and May 2011 were removed, and the matches played between May 2012 and May 2013 switched to 50% weighting. This happens overnight, so can result in teams changing positions in the ranking table despite no one playing.
Each time two teams complete another series, the rankings tables is updated as described below, based on the ratings of the teams immediately before they played.
Step 1. Find the series points for each team
If the gap between the ratings of the two teams before the series was less than 40 points
The ratings points for each team equals:
As each match won earns a team 1 series point and their opponent 0, losing earns them 0 series points and their opponent 1, and drawing earns both teams ½ series point, each match played therefore earns teams ratings points as follows:
As this formula only applies when the gap between the ratings of the two teams at the start of the series was less than 40 points, winning a match will always earn a team more rating points than the rating they already had, and losing a match will always earn a team fewer rating points than the rating they already had. Drawing a match will earn the weaker team more rating points than the rating they already had, and the stronger team fewer.
The difference between winning and losing a single match is therefore 100 points. Also, whether the outcome of a match is a win & lose or a draw, the total rating points earned by the two teams from that match will be the sum of the two teams' ratings before the series began. The total rating points earned from a series will therefore equal the sum of the two teams' ratings before the series began multiplied by (the number of matches + 1).
If the gap between the ratings of the two teams before the series was at least 40 points
The ratings points for the stronger team equals:
and the ratings points for the weaker team equals:
As above, each match played therefore earns teams ratings points as follows:
Therefore, again, winning a match will always earn a team more rating points than the rating they already had, and losing a match will always earn a team fewer rating points than the rating they already had. Drawing a match will earn the weaker team more points than the rating they already had, and the stronger team fewer.
For both teams, the difference between winning and losing a single match is still 100 points. Also, whichever of the three outcomes happens, the total rating points earned by the two teams from that match will be the sum of the two teams' ratings before the series began.
Step 3. Update the ranking table
For each team:
Example
Suppose two teams, initially with ratings of 120 and 90, play a 3-match series, and the team with the higher initial rating wins 2-1: