ICC Test Championship
| ICC Test Championship | |
|---|---|
|
ICC Test Championship logo | |
| Administrator | International Cricket Council |
| Format | Test cricket |
| First tournament | 2003 |
| Last tournament | ongoing |
| Tournament format |
notional (ongoing points accumulation through all matches played) |
| Number of teams | 10 |
| Current champion |
 South Africa (124 points) |
| Most successful |
 Australia (77 months) |
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.
In essence, after every Test series, the two teams involved receive points based on a mathematical formula. The total of each team's points total is divided by the total number of matches to give a 'rating', and the Test-playing teams are ranked by order of rating (this can be shown in a table).
The points for winning a Test match or series are greater than the team's rating, increasing the rating, and the points for losing the match or series are always less than the rating, reducing the rating. 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.[1]
South Africa are currently the highest-ranked team in the ICC Test Championship having beaten Sri Lanka 1-0 in a two match series held in Sri Lanka in July 2014. [2]
Current rankings
| ICC Test Championship | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Change | Team | Matches | Points | Rating |
| 1 |  | South Africa | 31 | 3839 | 124 |
| 2 | | Australia | 40 | 4718 | 118 |
| 3 | |  England | 39 | 4063 | 104 |
| 4 | |  Pakistan | 30 | 3090 | 103 |
| 5 | |  New Zealand | 37 | 3660 | 99 |
| 6 |  |  Sri Lanka | 34 | 3258 | 96 |
| 7 |  |  India | 34 | 3228 | 95 |
| 8 | |  West Indies | 30 | 2272 | 76 |
| 9 | |  Bangladesh | 21 | 676 | 32 |
| 10 | |  Zimbabwe | 13 | 228 | 18 |
| Reference: ICC Rankings, 30 March 2015 | |||||
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:
| Team | Start | End | Total months | Cumulative Months | Highest rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | June 2003 | August 2009 | 74 | 74 | 143 |
| South Africa | August 2009 | November 2009 | 3 | 3 | 122 |
| India | November 2009 | August 2011 | 21 | 21 | 130 |
| England | August 2011 | August 2012 | 12 | 12 | 125 |
| South Africa | August 2012 | May 2014 | 21 | 24 | 135 |
| Australia | May 2014 | July 2014 | 3 | 77 | 123 |
| South Africa | July 2014 | Present | - | 34 | 124 |
| Reference: ICC Rankings | |||||
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, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and England) 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 (112) from April 2000 to July 2009, the highest number of months ranked first (321) 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:
| Team | Start | End | Total months | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | January 1952 | May 1955 | 41 | |
| England | June 1955 | February 1958 | 33 | |
| Australia | March 1958 | July 1958 | 5 | |
| England | August 1958 | December 1958 | 5 | |
| Australia | January 1959 | December 1963 | 60 | |
| West Indies | January 1964 | December 1968 | 60 | |
 South Africa | January 1969 | December 1969 | 12 | |
| England | January 1970 | January 1973 | 37 | |
| Australia | February 1973 | March 1973 | 2 | |
| India | April 1973 | June 1974 | 15 | |
| Australia | July 1974 | January 1978 | 43 | |
| West Indies | February 1978 | January 1979 | 12 | |
| England | February 1979 | August 1980 | 19 | |
| India | September 1980 | February 1981 | 6 | |
| West Indies | March 1981 | July 1988 | 89 | |
| Pakistan | August 1988 | September 1988 | 2 | |
| West Indies | October 1988 | January 1991 | 28 | |
| Australia | February 1991 | April 1991 | 3 | |
| West Indies | May 1991 | July 1992 | 15 | |
| Australia | August 1992 | January 1993 | 6 | |
| West Indies | February 1993 | August 1995 | 31 | |
| India | September 1995 | November 1995 | 3 | |
| Australia | December 1995 | July 1999 | 44 | |
| South Africa | August 1999 | December 1999 | 5 | |
| Australia | January 2000 | February 2000 | 2 | |
| South Africa | March 2000 | March 2000 | 1 | |
| Australia | April 2000 | May 2003 | 38 | |
| Reference: ICC Historical Rankings | ||||
The summary of teams that have held the highest rating from 1952 to the present by whole month periods, are:
| Team | Total months | Highest rating | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 321 | 143 | ||
| West Indies | 235 | 135 | ||
| England | 106 | 125 | ||
| India | 45 | 130 | ||
| South Africa | 42 | 135 | ||
| Pakistan | 2 | 110 | ||
| Reference: ICC Historical Rankings | ||||
Trophy
Since 2001, the top-ranked Test team in the world has been awarded the ICC Test Championship mace. It is worth £30,000.[3]
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.[4][5] 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. The inaugural ICC Test Championship tournament will happen in 2017, in England and Wales.[6]
Test championship calculations
The calculations for the table are performed as follows:
- Each team scores points based on the results of their matches.
- Each team's rating is equal to its total points scored divided by the total matches and series played. (A series must include at least two Tests).
- A series only counts if played in the last four years.
- Series played in the first two years of the four-year limit count half; essentially, recent matches are given more weight.
- To determine a team's rating after a particular series:
- Find the series result
- Award 1 point to a team for each win
- Award 1/2 point to a team for each draw
- Award 1 bonus point to the team winning the series
- Award 1/2 bonus point to each team if the series is drawn
- Convert the series result to actual ratings points
- If the gap between the ratings of the two teams at the commencement of the series is less than 40 points, then the ratings points for each team equals:
- (The team's own series result) multiplied by (50 points MORE than the opponent's rating) PLUS
- (The opponent's series result) multiplied by (50 points LESS than the opponent's rating)
- If the gap between the ratings of the two teams at the commencement of the series is more than or equal to 40 points, then the ratings points for the stronger team equals:
- (The team's own series result) multiplied by (10 points MORE than the team's own rating) PLUS
- (The opponent's series result) multiplied by (90 points LESS than the team's own rating)
- If the gap between the ratings of the two teams at the commencement of the series is more than or equal to 40 points, then the ratings points for the weaker team equals:
- (The team's own series result) multiplied by (90 points MORE than the team's own rating) PLUS
- (The opponent's series result) multiplied by (10 points LESS than the team's own rating)
- If the gap between the ratings of the two teams at the commencement of the series is less than 40 points, then the ratings points for each team equals:
- Add the ratings points scored by the team to the total ratings points already scored (in previous matches, as reflected by the Table)
- Update the number of matches played by the team through adding one more than the number of games in the series (a two Test match series will result in the match count getting incremented by three)
- Divide the new rating points with the updated number of matches to get the final rating.
- Find the series result
See also
- ICC Player Rankings
- ICC ODI Championship
- ICC T20 Championship
- International structure of cricket
References
- ↑ cricketnext – England presented with Test mace. Retrieved 22 August 2011
- ↑ International Cricket Council. "South Africa reclaims number-one Test spot". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
- ↑ "Waugh receives ICC Test trophy | Cricket News | Global". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
- ↑ "ICC news: Lorgat hints at Test championship in 2013 | Cricket News | Cricinfo ICC Site". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 2011-08-15.
- ↑ "ICC news: ICC could use 'timeless' Test for World Championship final | Cricket News | Cricinfo ICC Site". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 2011-08-15.
- ↑ "ICC news: Test Championship could be delayed until 2017 | Cricket News | Cricinfo ICC Site". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
External links
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