Inaugural edition of World Test Championship and it’s impact on Test Cricket
The 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship was the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship of Test cricket. It started on 1 August 2019 with the first Test of the 2019 Ashes series, and finished with the Final at the Rose Bowl, Southampton in June 2021.
It came nearly a decade after the International Cricket Council (ICC) first approved the idea for a World Test Championship in 2010, and following two cancelled attempts to hold the inaugural competition in 2013 and 2017.
It featured nine of the twelve Test playing nations, each of whom was scheduled to play a Test series against six of the other eight teams. Each series consisted of between two and five matches, so although all teams were to play six series (three at home and three away), they were not scheduled to play the same number of Tests.
Each team were able to score a maximum of 120 points from each series and the two teams with the most points at the end of the league stage would contest the final.
In the case of a draw or a tie in the final, the two teams playing the final would be declared joint champions. However, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted on the Championship, with several rounds of matches being postponed or cancelled. In November 2020, the ICC announced that the finalists would be decided by percentage of points earned.
Several previous attempts
For most of the 2010s the ICC tried and mostly failed to get this giant balloon off the ground. If it wasn’t the endless scheduling problems, it was the lack of interest of their main broadcast partner, ESPN Star Sports, who squashed the first tournament in 2011 because there was no guarantee India would be involved.
If it wasn’t the broadcasters, it was the self-interest of the boards of India, Australia and England, who essentially killed the ICC’s second attempt at a WTC in 2014 as part of their repulsive “Big Three” takeover.
Unevenly balanced point-system
Certainly the WTC in its current shape feels like a hard thing to love: a weird competition with its lop-sided format, its difficult points system before the pandemic where a tie in a two-match series was worth more points than a win in an Ashes Test, that England had to go to India but none of their closest rivals did. It is, in short, a chaos. It is also — for all this, the best and only thing we have.
Here’s the thing: for all the legitimate criticisms, the weird percentages, the irreversible unfairness, this tournament has somehow spat out the best two teams in Test cricket.
Is the Test Cricket revived?
Test cricket has its niche, and a pretty powerful one at that. It never needed to be revived, because it was not dying. Test cricket is the purest form of the sport. The real fans know the excitement and thrill it brings to the table.
Stuart Broad mentioned after Gabba Test that “Test cricket heart is beating strongly” which can be assumed as a reference to the Impact of WTC.
WTC have increased the popularity of test matches. Has the game become much more interesting? The answer for that would differ from person to person. A fan who would have just started watching the sport because of the hyped championship would probably agree, but those who have been following the format since years and believe to be a Harsha Bhogle themselves might see it with no difference.
Historic as they say
When you look back at this Test championship cycle, the whole 2 years of journey was way more beautiful than just the final.
It produced some breathtaking as well as memorable moments be it pant’s heroic knock at Gabba or Ben Stokes taking England home from a mere impossible position or even Ashwin’s magnificent 106 in the 2nd test against England without which India wouldn’t have seen their doors opening for the wtc final. David Warner’s majestic triple century against Pakistan, Jasprit Bumrah unearthing the stumps — from his fiery in-swingers sending West Indies home and The list will go on and on and on.
Talking about Pant’s stupendous knock, It was the highest successful chase from 63 Tests at the venue, snapping Australia’s undefeated streak in Brisbane that stretched back to 1988. Pant finished 89 not out, keeping calm amid a chaotic finish.
The parallels with Stokes’ unbeaten ton at Headingley, which dragged his side past 359 and completed England’s highest ever chase.
These moments are what makes Test cricket so special and at the same time ‘historic’.
By Raman Kosta
