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	England (118 points)
Most successful	Australia (74 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.

As of 06 February 2012, England lead the ICC Test Championship with a rating of 118, while the lowest rated team, Bangladesh, has a rating of 8.

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 three years.
• Series played in the first two years of the three-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)
  • 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.

Current rankings

Main Test table

Rank	Team	Matches	Points	Rating
1	England	41	4,830	118
2	South Africa	28	3,277	117
3	India	46	5,111	111
4	Australia	42	4,655	111
5	Pakistan	35	3,781	108
6	Sri Lanka	35	3,426	98
7	West Indies	30	2,654	88
8	New Zealand	24	1,998	83
9	Bangladesh	18	135	8
Reference: ICC Rankings, 06 February 2012

• Note: Zimbabwe is currently unranked, since it has played insufficient matches. It has 167 points and a rating of 22.

Historical rankings

World rankings for the top eight teams from 2003 to June 2011

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	Highest Rating
Australia	June 2003	July 2009	74	143
South Africa	August 2009	November 2009	4	122
India	December 2009	July 2011	20	130
England	August 2011	present	7	125
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 (95) from September 2001 to July 2009, the highest number of months ranked first (317) 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	July 2001	16
South Africa	August 2001	August 2001	1
Australia	September 2001	May 2003	21
Reference: ICC Historical Rankings

The summary of teams that have held the highest rating since 1952 till present by whole month periods, are:

Team	Total Months	Highest Rating
Australia	316	143
West Indies	234	135
England	101	125
India	44	130
South Africa	23	122
Pakistan	2	110
Reference: ICC Historical Rankings

Tournament format

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 has proposed a quadrennial tournament with the four best-performing nations to meet in semi-finals and a final, in a bid to boost flagging interest in the longest form of the sport. The first tournament could replace the 2013 Champions Trophy in England. However, this now seems unlikely as the ICC has stated that it does not have the support of its broadcast partner - ESPN STAR Sports. This is mainly because the broadcast of the Champions Trophy would generate much more revenue than a Test Championship. The ICC has said the inaugural ICC Test Championship tournament is likely to be delayed to 2017.

See also

• ICC ODI Championship
• ICC T20 Championship
• International structure of cricket
• ICC Player Rankings

External links

• ICC Test and ODI Championship Rankings