The tournament was played over two years. Each team were scheduled to play six other opponents, three at home and three away. Each series consisted of between two and five Test matches. Therefore, all participants did not play the same number of Tests, but played the same number of series. At the end of the league stage the top two teams played in the final. Each match is scheduled for a duration of five days.
Point scoring The ICC decided that the same number of points would be available from each series, regardless of series length, so that countries that played fewer Tests were not disadvantaged. It also decided that points would not be awarded for series results, but for match results only. These would be split equally between all the matches in the series, regardless of whether or not a match was a
dead rubber, so that every match counted. In a five-match series, therefore, 20% of the points would be available each match, while in a two-match series, 50% of the points would be available each match. Therefore, depending on whether the series is 2, 3, 4 or 5 matches long, the number of points awarded for a single match win would be a half, a third, a quarter, or a fifth of the maximum possible from the series. The ICC also decided that a tie should be worth half of a win and that a draw should be worth a third of a win. This all meant that after each match, a team could be awarded a half, a third, a quarter, a fifth, a sixth, an eighth, a ninth, a tenth, a twelfth or a fifteenth of the total points available from the series, depending on the result and how many matches the series happened to consist of. Ultimately, this meant a figure for the total points available from the series needs to be picked very carefully, as not many numbers give all
integers when split into all these different fractions (360 does). Being a
highly composite number, when 120 was split into all these fractions, an integer was obtained in all cases except one – the points awarded for a draw in a 3-match series should be 13 (a third of a third of 120), but the had been dropped. Each series would therefore carry a maximum of 120 points with points distributed as follows: A team that was behind the required
over rate at the end of a match would have two competition points deducted for each over it was behind. In January 2020, South Africa became the first team to be docked World Test Championship points, after a slow over-rate in the
fourth Test against England. == Participants ==