News
27 Jan 2018, 11:40 pm
Summary
This post explains how India retained the ICC Test Championship mace and secured a $1 million prize after safeguarding their top ranking at the April cut-off.
The author reports India traveled to South Africa on 124 rating points with South Africa on 111, and after the Johannesburg Test India return with 121 points versus South Africa’s 115, a margin sufficient to guarantee India remain number one at the April 3 cut-off regardless of South Africa’s remaining results.
India’s captain Virat Kohli will be presented the mace and a $1 million cheque in a forthcoming ceremony; the piece notes Kohli first received the mace in 2016 and that the award symbolizes sustained excellence in Test cricket.
The post outlines the conditional scenarios: had South Africa achieved a 3-0 series win over India, a subsequent 2-0 (or better) series win against Australia could have allowed them to reclaim the mace they previously held in 2015, highlighting how series permutations affect ICC Test rankings.
A historical list of cut-off year leaders (2003–2018) is provided to contextualize India’s standing, showing Australia’s early dominance, South Africa’s mid-2010s peak, and India topping multiple recent cut-offs.
India have retained the ICC Test Championship mace and have also won an award of $1million after their victory in the Johannesburg Test ensured that South Africa cannot move ahead of them in the ICC Test Team Rankings at the 3 April cut-off date, even if they go on to win all four Tests against Australia in March. India had arrived in South Africa on 124 points, with South Africa 13 points behind on 111 points. However, Virat Kohli’s men will return on 121 points as opposed to South Africa’s 115 points, which will be good enough for them to keep possession of the prestigious ICC Test Championship mace for the second year in succession at the April cut-off.
Virat will be presented with the mace, which is a symbol of excellence and a recognition of a side’s outstanding performance in the purest format of the game, and a cheque of $1million in a presentation ceremony, the details of which will be announced in due course. Virat had become the 10th captain since 2002 to get his hands on the mace when he had received it from Sunil Gavaskar following the Indore Test against New Zealand in 2016. Had South Africa pulled off a 3-0 series win against India, then a win by 2-0 or better against Australia would have helped them reclaim the mace they had last won in 2015.
Below is the list of teams finishing at the number-one position at the 1 April cut-off: 2003 – Australia 2004 – Australia 2005 – Australia 2006 – Australia 2007 – Australia 2008 – Australia 2009 – Australia 2010 – India 2011 – India 2012 – England 2013 – South Africa 2014 – South Africa 2015 – South Africa 2016 – Australia 2017 – India 2018 - India
