ICC Test Championship preview: West Indies v Sri Lanka
If Sri Lanka can win the two-Test series against West Indies starting in St Lucia on 20 June 2003 it could climb to third place in the ICC Test Championship table
ICC Media Release
18-Jun-2003
Historic series win could put Sri Lanka third
If Sri Lanka can win the two-Test series against West Indies starting in St Lucia on 20 June 2003 it could climb to third place in the ICC Test Championship table.
A 2-0 victory for Sri Lanka would boost its rating to 103, the same as New Zealand but Sri Lanka would go third by virtue of more matches played.
However, Sri Lanka has never won a Test match on Caribbean soil. Its two previous Tests in the West Indies in June 1997 resulted in a defeat and a draw.
As West Indies has a significantly lower rating than Sri Lanka going into this series, a 1-0 victory for the home side would lift its rating by three points from 79 to 82 while a 2-0 victory would see it climb to 83 - closing the gap on India and Pakistan.
This is the second Test series to count towards the re-launched ICC Test Championship. The first was England's 2-0 series victory against Zimbabwe which boosted England's rating from 97 to 98.
The ICC Test Championship table, 17 June 2003
| Team | Rating | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia | 129 |
| 2 | South Africa | 115 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 103 |
| 4 | Sri Lanka | 101 |
| 5 | England | 98 |
| 6 | India | 91 |
| 7 | Pakistan | 91 |
| 8 | West Indies | 79 |
| 9 | Zimbabwe | 58 |
| 10 | Bangladesh | 4 |
Full scenarios for West Indies v Sri Lanka Test series:
| West Indies | Sri Lanka | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current rating: | 79 | 101 | ||
| Possible series outcomes: | ||||
| West Indies wins by 2 Tests (2-0) | 83 | 96 | ||
| West Indies wins by 1 Test (1-0) | 82 | 97 | ||
| Series drawn (0-0 or 1-1) | 80 | 100 | ||
| Sri Lanka wins by 1 Test (1-0) | 78 | 102 | ||
| Sri Lanka wins by 2 Tests (2-0) | 77 | 103 | ||
Wasim Raja from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Referees will officiate on the series. Daryl Harper and Billy Bowden from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires will stand in the first Test while Darrell Hair and Russell Tiffin will stand in the second Test.
Explanation of the ICC Test Championship:
The new ICC Test Championship takes into account the result of every individual Test Match with a bonus awarded for winning a series. It also recognises the strength of the opposition in calculating the points awarded.
The system means that there are no longer any `dead rubber' Test Matches and that in any series both teams have the opportunity to improve or worsen their rating.
The ICC Test Championship reflects performances in all Tests completed since a given date (currently 1 August 1999), in contrast to the previous system which included some series played in 1996/97 yet excluded some more recent series. More recent matches have a stronger weighting and the rankings are refreshed every August.
A rating of 100 reflects average performance, so a team winning and losing a similar number of matches and playing a broad mix of opponents will have a rating close to 100.
For the up-to-date ICC Test Championship table plus full scenarios for forthcoming series and details of the formula for calculating ratings visit the official ICC website www.icc.cricket.org
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