The Test Championship League points allocation methodology

The methodology is simple. My idea is that, at a pinch, any reader should be able to work out the standings themselves.

Results
The maximum points that a team can receive for a win is 10.0. This is composed of three components: the Base points, the Margin points, and the Location-based Result Bonus. The Base points carry a weight of 80% and the other two, 10% each.

A maximum of 8.0 points can be allotted for the win per se. This ensures that the win gets its primacy. Eighty per cent is quite a high figure and ensures that a win is treated as very significant.

A maximum of 1.0 point will be allotted for the margin of victory. This value is limited to 1.0. If the Team Performance Point (TPP) margin is 80-20, the winning team gets 0.8 (total 8.8 points) points and the losing team gets 0.2. If the TPP margin is 65-35, the winning team gets 0.65 points (total 8.65) and the losing team gets 0.35. If the TPP margin is 51-49, the winning team gets 0.51 (total 8.51) and the losing team gets 0.49 points.

A maximum of 1.0 point (split across the teams) will be allotted for the Location result bonus. This is determined based on the following methodology: the Result points (Base points) and the Margin points are added and multiplied by the LRF (Location Result Factor). The maximum points that any team can secure is 1.0. The LR points are allotted for all results (not for ties and draws).

1. Australia vs England, Brisbane, 1928-29
England won by 675 runs (away win)

Final points
England: 9.84 (8.94*1.10)
Australia: 0.06

2. Pakistan vs Bangladesh, Rawalpindi, 2024
Bangladesh won by six wickets (away win)

Final points
Bangladesh: 9.47 (8.61*1.10)
Pakistan: 0.39

3. India vs England, Visakhapatnam, 2023-24/A>
India won by 106 runs (home win)

Final points
West Indies: 9.35 (8.50*1.10)
Australia: 0.50

5. Australia vs Pakistan, Headingley, 2010
Pakistan won by three wickets (neutral win)

Final points
Pakistan: 9.05 (8.53*1.06)
Australia: 0.47

Note: For the two-innings farce between South Africa and England in Centurion in 2000, and the 2006 Oval Test that Pakistan forfeited I realise that my doing anything extraordinary to account for the special circumstances in those Tests would penalise England. They were not at fault in either of those Tests. Only the Base points are allotted to England, the winning team in both matches, for these two Tests.

Ties
The two ties - in Brisbane in 1960 and in Madras in 1986 - are considered special Tests and the teams (Australia, West Indies and India) get 6.0 points each. This is to recognise the efforts of the two teams who fought until not one more ball could be bowled. And I have respected the two teams by allotting equal points irrespective of the location.

Draws
Draws are allotted the Base points and Margin points. The Base points vary depending on the extent of completion of the match. Four-innings draws are allotted 3.0 points each. Three-innings draws are allotted 3.0 or 2.5 points, depending on the extent of completion. Two-innings draws are allotted 2.0 or 1.5 depending on the extent of completion. One-inning matches are allotted 1.0 point each.

The Margin points for draws are allotted based on the Team Performance Points metric I have developed. Using a complex methodology, I assign total points for drawn matches based on the extent of completion. A limit of 2.0 is set for the Margin points. A few examples will clarify the metric.

A few TPP allocation examples are below. The TPP points are determined by the extent of completion of the match.

50.6 : 49.2 for India for the draw against West Indies with scores level and nine wickets down in Mumbai in 2011.

49.0 : 46.5 for Australia for the fighting draw against India in Sydney in 2021.

74.4 : 23.1 for South Africa for their near-win at Wanderers against Australia in 1967.

43.4 : 30.9 for a three-innings draw between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Wellington in 2018.

31.5 : 15.7 for the two-innings draw between Australia and Pakistan in Sydney in 1990.

8.8 : 7.1 for a one-innings draw between New Zealand and West Indies in Napier in 2006.

I will ensure that the points for draws do not exceed the points allotted for ties. A maximum of 2.0 points are allotted as Margin points. These total points are allocated to the two teams based on their TPP values.

India vs West Indies, Mumbai, 2011
Points allocated: 8.62
India: 4.29
West Indies: 4.33

Australia vs India, Brisbane, 2021
Points allocated: 8.51
Australia: 4.29
India: 4.22

South Africa vs Australia, Johannesburg, 1967
Points allocated: 8.57
or South Africa: 4.96
Australia: 3.61

New Zealand vs Sri Lanka, Wellington, 2018
Points allocated: 6.95
Sri Lanka: 3.31
New Zealand: 3.64

Australia vs Pakistan, Sydney, 1990
Points allocated: 4.24
Pakistan: 1.91
Australia: 2.33

New Zealand vs West Indies, Napier, 2006
Points allocated: 2.41
West Indies: 1.23
New Zealand: 1.18

A few key facts:

Final classification
The final aggregate of points is divided by the number of matches to develop the Performance Rating for each team. This is used to classify the teams within a period. The index is called TCLP-% (TCL Performance-%).

The text file containing all the details of 2579 Tests, including the TCLI points, can be found here.