Ben Stokes finds the World Test Championship (WTC) ‘utterly confusing.’ The England Test captain didn’t hold back when it came to what he thinks about the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) new product. Currently in New Zealand, playing the first match of the 3-match Test series, Stokes was asked about his opinion on the ICC WTC right after the end of the day’s play in Christchurch.
WTC, useless?
“In all honesty, the World Test Championship, it is a bit confusing, it’s one of those where, you know we don’t really look at it, I don’t look at it. It’s one of those where over a long period of time if you’re playing really good cricket, you’re getting results that you want, you’ll end up finding yourself there in the final and in the mix,” Stokes told reporters.
“For me and this team it’s about taking it game by game, series by series and if you end up finding yourself in the position where you happen to be in that World Test Championship final, then it’s great but it’s a real weird one knowing that you’re playing for something over a long period of time. 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, we play a lot more cricket than anyone else does, that’s just what we try and focus on, you know, if we play well, we’ll be there or thereabouts but if we don’t, then we won’t be,” he added.
The problem with WTC
England have played 19 matches, the most of any team in the 2023-25 WTC cycle, which gives them a massive disadvantage. A team like South Africa can qualify despite playing just 8 matches (ninth in progress) as the weightage for qualification is given according to your point-win percentage. But how can two teams be evaluated equally if they don’t play the same number of matches? The weightage for away and home games is also the same. Everyone understands that winning a Test in India, like New Zealand did, is much more difficult than beating India beating Bangladesh at home. Yet, both get the same number of points after each win.
WTC 2023-25 Point Table
| Team | Matches | Won | Lost | Drawn | NR | Points | Point % | |
| 1 | India | 15 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 110 | 61.110 |
| 2 | Australia | 13 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 90 | 57.690 |
| 3 | Sri Lanka | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 55.560 |
| 4 | New Zealand | 11 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 72 | 54.550 |
| 5 | South Africa | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 52 | 54.170 |
| 6 | England | 19 | 9 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 93 | 40.790 |
| 7 | Pakistan | 10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 33.330 |
| 8 | West Indies | 10 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 32 | 26.670 |
| 9 | Bangladesh | 11 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 25.000 |
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