Flawed Test Championship reveals world cricket’s underlying problems

REIGNING champions Australia face South Africa in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s from today amid a chorus of criticism over the competition’s format.

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Wisden, cricket’s “bible”, was scathing in its assessment, with editor Lawrence Booth writing in this year’s edition that the WTC is a “shambles masquerading as a showpiece”.

Former England captain Michael Atherton said “everyone knows the WTC in its present guise is flawed”.

One fundamental problem is that political tensions mean India and Pakistan, two of cricket’s leading nations, have not played a Test against each other since 2007.

The nine-nation WTC is further skewed because the teams are not all required to face each other or to play the same number of matches. Countries are free to decide how many Tests they want to play in the two-year qualifying cycle and positions are calculated based on the percentage of available points won by teams.

South Africa have played just 12 Tests in the current cycle - all of them two-match series — compared to England’s 22, and have not played either England or Australia.