ICC points system "stupid", says Waugh

SYDNEY - Australian captain Steve Waugh today criticised the points system in the new International Cricket Council Test championship as "stupid" and claimed every Test should count.

The championship, which started with last week's Test between England and Pakistan at Lord's, will pit the 10 Test playing nations against each other on a home-and-away basis over a five-year period.

Two points are awarded for a series win and one for a draw.

If a team wins the first three matches of a five-Test series, the last two would effectively count for nothing while a team winning a series 5-0 would get no more points than one triumphing 3-2.

Waugh today admitted he didn't fully understand the system, but rejected the suggestion Tests could be vulnerable to match fixing if they weren't worth any points.

"I wouldn't think it would leave it open to match fixing, but I think it's stupid," Waugh said.

"We pride ourselves in every Test match being special and what's the point of playing if they don't count for anything?

"They still count for our personal pride and the team. I must admit I haven't looked at the championship specifically and seen how it works, but I'm surprised those Test matches don't count, they should count.

"That's what it's all about, that's why you're the number one side, because you can perform I guess when other people don't expect you to."

With 10 teams having to be accommodated in a packed international schedule, Waugh even suggested the days of the five-Test series were numbered.

"I think eventually they might even go back to four. Four Tests might be the most convenient number, I don't know," Waugh said.

"With five, you definitely sort out the best team, in three sometimes you get the feeling `I'm not sure whether the best side is actually on top at this stage' and you're just getting to know the opposition really well."

Australian Cricket Board chief executive Malcolm Speed said it considered playing five Tests in each country rather than three in this summer's home-and-away series against South Africa, but felt the additional workload was too much.

"Five here and five in South Africa is pretty much ridiculous," said Waugh, who along with Speed admitted Australia probably would ultimately play a five-Test series against South Africa.

"Ten Tests in a row against the same side and I think you're on automatic pilot by about the seventh Test, I don't think too many people would be watching it, you've got to keep it special and not overdo it."

Waugh welcomed tomorrow's much-anticipated release of the ICC Anti Corruption Unit's report into alleged matching fixing.

"We want to know what's going on and people want the game cleared up, so as soon as it comes out the better," Waugh said.

He wouldn't comment on a claim by former England all-rounder Ian Botham that up to a billion dollars had been wagered on a single Test, but Speed described the claim as "a frightening thought."

Waugh also today called for any technological advances aimed at assisting umpires to be trialled at lower levels of the game.

The technology issue will be raised at the ICC's annual cricket committee meeting in London tomorrow at which former Test captain Allan Border will represent Australia.

Speed said the ACB supported technology provided it improved the game and introduced a level of certainty while Waugh didn't want the game to become "too Americanised" with each decision referred to a video replay.

"They (the umpires) are going to make errors on occasions and I think we can live by that, that's the way it's always been," Waugh said.

"But if there's a decision where there is a line involved with a stump or a run out, I think that's fine.

"If they've got the technology to show where a ball has carried for a catch then use it, but I think at the moment it's unclear and it's caused more controversy than the issues that it solves."