ICC Test Championship

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The ICC Test Championship is a notional competition run by the International Cricket Council in the sport of cricket for the 10 nations 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.

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.

As of November 20, 2007, Australia lead the ICC Test Championship with a rating of 143, with England in second place ranked with 111, ahead of South Africa's 109 and India's 107. The lowest rated team, Bangladesh, has a rating of just 4.

1 Test Championship calculations
2 Ranking of teams
3 See also
4 External links

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 weightage.
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) and calculate the new rating.

Rank	Team	Matches	Points	Rating
1	Australia	28	4005	143
2	South Africa	33	3603	109
3	Sri Lanka	32	3490	109
4	India	33	3591	109
5	England	40	4299	107
6	Pakistan	33	3107	94
7	New Zealand	18	1646	91
8	West Indies	24	1717	72
9	Bangladesh	18	65	4
Reference: [1], December 22, 2007edit

Note: Zimbabwe has a rating of 12 but has not played a sufficient number of Test matches over the new rating period (since August 2004) to be included on the table. Zimbabwe has suspended its participation in Test cricket twice; first from June 10, 2004 to January 6, 2005 and then from January 18, 2006. They are scheduled to resume Test cricket in November 2007.