Cricket-World Test Championship format needs revamping despite riveting final
Cricket - 2025 ICC World Test Championship Final - South Africa v Australia - Lord's Cricket Ground, London, Britain - June 14, 2025 South Africa's Keshav Maharaj shakes hands with fans in the stands as a giant screen displays the message of 'Champions 2025' after South Africa won the ICC World Test Championship final Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers
LONDON (Reuters) -A riveting World Test Championship final between Australia and South Africa went a long way to boost the sagging credentials of the five-day game, but the format of the competition is in need of a revamp, according to many of the game's top observers.
South Africa beat Australia by five wickets at lunch on the fourth day of a fluctuating contest at Lord's in which the bowlers dominated the opening two days. A total of 24 wickets were taken, but the tables were turned as wickets turned benign and the batsmen changed the course of the match.
It was classic test cricket, as good as the excitement from any limited overs contest, but the overall WTC is a bewildering competition, devoid of uniformity and an unbalanced points system.
There was much criticism of how South Africa managed to reach the final without playing either Australia and England in the two-year qualifying period.
"It's very hard for the average cricket fan to understand who's the best team in the world and how exactly the top two teams make it to the final," said former England captain Michael Vaughan, now a television pundit.
The two finalists are decided by a table of test results, with points awarded for wins and draws. The pair with the highest percentage of points available to them advance to the final, which in 2027 could again be at Lord's or in India, according to International Cricket Council officials.
But there was a major discrepancy in South Africa playing only 12 tests compared to 19 for Australia and India, and even more by England (22).
"I can't remember if I've ever even given any real time to be specifically thinking about the World Test Championship to be honest because it's utterly confusing," added England captain Ben Stokes.
Countries are free to decide how many tests they want to play, and in South Africa's case, there is much less of an appetite for test cricket because they lose money.
In the next cycle, which starts on Tuesday when Bangladesh begin a two-test series in Sri Lanka, the new champions will play 14 tests, this time including three test series against each of Australia and England but only two against India.
Five test series are now only the preserve of contests between Australia, England, and India.
"The fixture list is uneven; not everyone plays everyone else, and some have an easier ride than others," wrote Michael Atherton last week.
"Everyone knows the WTC in its present guise is flawed, and that solutions, with so many competing interests, are fiendishly difficult," added the former England skipper.
(Editing by Christian Radnedge)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Athletics-Swede Duplantis soars to new pole vault world record with 6.28m jump
Athletics - Diamond League - Stockholm - Stockholm Olympic Stadium, Stockholm, Sweden - June 15, 2025 Sweden's Armand Duplantis with Usain Bolt before the competition Jonas Ekstromer/TT News Agency via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. SWEDEN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN SWEDEN. STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Sweden's Armand Duplantis soared 6.28 metres to break the world pole vault record at the Diamond League event in Stockholm on Sunday, the 12th time he has set a new world-best mark. The American-born double Olympic champion improved on his previous record, set in February, by one centimetre on his first attempt, making the most of the perfect conditions to delight the home crowd. Having promised fans ahead of the competition that he would try to break the record, Duplantis encouraged the crowd to get behind him from the moment his name was announced at the Swedish capital's Olympic stadium, which was built for the 1912 Games, and they responded by wildly clapping and cheering his every attempt as he cruised through the competition. Kurtis Marschall did his best to put it up to the hometown favourite, but the Australian could only manage a best effort of 5.90 before making three unsuccessful attempts to clear the six-metre mark. That left the field clear for Duplantisas the bar was raised to 6.28 for his world record attempt, and once again, the 25-year-old made it look easy, powering through his run-up before planting his pole and soaring to another world record as the stadium exploded in jubilation. Duplantis sprinted from the landing mat, tearing off his singlet to celebrate his first world record set on Swedish soil with his partner and family. In the women's 400m hurdles, Dutch athlete Femke Bol blazed away over the last 100 metres to win in a season-best time for her of 52.11 seconds, eight-tenths of a second ahead of American Dalilah Muhammad, who came second. (Reporting by Philip O'Connor, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Tennis-Maria crowned first Queen's Club women's champion in 52 years
Tennis - Queen's Club Championships - Queen's Club, London, Britain - June 15, 2025 Amanda Anisimova of the U.S. during the final match against Germany's Tatjana Maria Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge (Reuters) -German qualifier Tatjana Maria capped an incredible week in London as she defeated American eighth seed Amanda Anisimova 6-3 6-4 on Sunday to become the first woman to win a title at Queen's Club in over half a century. The victory marked the end of an extraordinary nine-day stretch for the mother-of-two, ranked 86 in the world, having stunned second seed and Australian Open champion Madison Keys in the previous round. The 37-year-old becomes the oldest player to claim a WTA title since Serena Williams in Auckland 2020. She dropped only one set en route to the title and her dream run also included victories over Kazakh fourth seed Elena Rybakina and Czech sixth seed Karolina Muchova. Maria dominated Anismova with big serves and earned an early break in the first set. She won 12 points in a row as she raced to a 4-1 lead and then held off a brief Anisimova fightback to close out the set. Maria carried her momentum into the second as she again surged into a 4-1 lead. Her seventh ace of the match helped her move up 5-3, and she served out the match two games later to clinch her first title in over two years. "A dream come true. (When) I came here, I was never thinking I could hold the trophy at the end. When we arrived my little girl said 'wow that's a nice trophy, so big' and I said 'OK let's go for it I will try to win it'," Maria said. "In the end I've won it, it's incredible. So happy. Everything is possible if you believe in it. You go your way, doesn't matter which it is but you have to keep going. I want to show this to my kids and hopefully they are proud. It's amazing." Maria threw her arms up as she watched Anisimova's forehand sail wide on match point, before both players shared an affectionate embrace at the net. "I wouldn't be surprised if we see you in the Wimbledon final because you really had me running out there today," Anisimova said. Having started the week as world number 86, Maria is projected to move up to world number 43 when the new rankings are released on Monday. The Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen's welcomed back female competitors for the first time since 1973, when the Soviet Union's Olga Morozova won the title. Wimbledon runs from June 30 to July 13. (Reporting by Shifa Jahan in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Golf-Burns takes one-shot lead over Scott and Spaun into final round at Oakmont
FILE PHOTO: Jun 14, 2025; Oakmont, Pennsylvania, USA; Sam Burns plays his shot from the 18th tee during the third round of the U.S. Open golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images/File Photo OAKMONT, Pennsylvania (Reuters) -Sam Burns will try to secure the biggest win of his career when he sets off in the final round of the U.S. Open clinging to a one-shot lead over Australian Adam Scott and J.J. Spaun at Oakmont Country Club on Sunday. Burns, whose best finish at one of golf's blue-riband events came at last year's U.S. Open where he earned a share of ninth place, has been impervious to the major-championship pressure all week and now stands 18 holes away from glory. "As a kid growing up, you dream about winning major championships and that's why we practice so hard and work so hard," Burns, who is four under on the week and one of four players under par, said after the third round. "All these guys in this field I think would agree that to have the opportunity to win a major is special." Scott, the 2013 Masters champion and only player in the top 10 after the third round with a major to his name, has flashed vintage form this week with brilliant ball-striking prowess. The 44-year-old Australian, who is the only player this week with three rounds of par or better, will head out in the final pairing with Burns at 2:15 p.m. ET (1815 GMT). "It would be super fulfilling," Scott said after the third round when asked about the idea of claiming a second major so late in his career. "It would be a hell of a round of golf and an exclamation point on my career." A win for Scott would break the record for longest time between a player winning his first and second majors. The current mark of 11 years is shared by Julius Boros (1952 and 1963 U.S. Opens) and Ben Crenshaw (1984 and 1995 Masters). J.J. Spaun, who had a share of the lead until a bogey at his closing hole on Saturday, will head out in the day's penultimate pairing alongside world number 14 Viktor Hovland, who is three shots back of Burns. Mexico's Carlos Ortiz, one of 14 LIV Golf players who teed up in this year's U.S. Open, was even par on the week and alone in fifth place. Entering the final round, all of the players among the top-10 on the leaderboard rank outside the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking, according to Elias Sports Bureau. The last time all of the players who were among the top 10 on the 54-hole U.S. Open leaderboard ranked outside the top 10 in the rankings was in 1998. (Reporting by Frank PingueEditing by Christian Radnedge)
