NEIL MANTHORP: Proposed points system for WTC will level the playing field

Moves are afoot to tweak the points system in the World Test Championship (WTC) before the next cycle begins with India’s five-Test tour of England in June and July. This is a good thing. The current method is a fudged compromise based around the principle of an “average” given that the teams all play a different number of matches.

The new system aims to address the reality that away victories are usually harder to come by than home wins and therefore more valuable — and worth more points. Makes sense.

Another suggestion which has been on the table for years is that the number of matches played by each team is, if not the same, then at least similar. Naturally this does not mean that the “small” Test nations will start playing five-match series to match those between the “big three”, but that only two or three of their five-match series will count towards the WTC log.

A proposal that the touring team could nominate which of the five matches “count” was rejected by the big three. There were simply too many questions to answer and consensus could not be reached. The status of the non-WTC contests would be compromised; and at what stage would the touring team have to make their choice?

If England were in India, for example, and selected the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru as one of their WTC choices because it would give their fast bowlers and seamers their best chance, the BCCI could simply instruct the local groundsmen to stop watering the pitch four days before the match and shave the grass off it on match day. If India chose Manchester’s Old Trafford because it is the country’s most spin-friendly venue, its curator would be liberal with the water and blunt with the mower.

But the most interesting suggestion is that points are “weighted” for victories against higher ranked opponents. So, you get more for beating Australia and India than for beating Bangladesh and the West Indies. Given that rankings can change frequently through the course of a two-year WTC cycle, this also seems unmanageable.

Whatever the outcome of the ICC-appointed committee tasked with investigating the problem and finding a solution, it will have to be approved by the BCCI and its lieutenants, the England Cricket Board and Cricket Australia. Any proposals which do not enhance their chances of reaching the final will not pass muster.

One of the most commonly repeated complaints among the global cricket community, including current and former players who really should know better, is that the ICC are “useless” and, worse, “spineless”. Their mistake is to believe that the good men and women based at headquarters in Dubai are, in fact, in charge of the global game — that they have the final say.

In fact, they are merely the managers of a private members club of which the BCCI is comfortably the most powerful. Just as the manager of any members club is duty-bound to maximise revenue and keep the members happy, the ICC does just that. As for how well that serves the global game, outgoing chairperson Greg Barclay — an excellent and highly experienced administrator from New Zealand — described it last year, on his way out of the door, as: “Completely unfit for purpose.”

So, as Cricket SA has demurely chosen to do, it may be that the majority of the ICC’s members are better off keeping their mouths shut, not jeopardising their status and focusing on making their meagre share of the annual dividends stretch as far as possible. Even if that means not having a Test match on home soil for more than 18 months, as was confirmed when Cricket SA released next summer’s fixtures last week.

The Proteas men will play five T20 Internationals against the West Indies at the end of January after the fourth edition of the SA20 which quickly magpied itself into the traditional Test match festive period between Boxing Day and the New Year. In fact, the country’s best T20 players will be playing the format for almost six straight months from the end of December with the WI series followed immediately by (yet another) T20 World Cup and the 2026 IPL ending in May.

There is, of course, the WTC final to look forward to on June 11 this year followed by two Tests in Zimbabwe later that month. And there are two Tests in Pakistan in October and another two in India a month later. Finally, a boon for Test lovers in October 2026 when Australia arrive for three matches followed by England, also for three Tests. Bangladesh are scheduled to precede both for two Tests.

So, no Test cricket in SA for over a year and a half and then eight in one summer. Should be a cracker. If the majority of the country’s supporters remember what Test cricket is. Hopefully the new points system still gives the Proteas a chance of reaching a second final. But, as I said, there’s no point in complaining.