Ravi Shastri slams ICC over change in World Test Championship’s points system

China on Sunday suggested return to the table of negotiation to settle its boundary dispute with India, although the two nations could not yet completely resolve the 11-month-long military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. “The truths of the border clashes last year are clear. What happened (along the LAC over the past few months) again proves that initiating confrontation will not solve the problem, and that returning to peaceful negotiation is the right way forward,” Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, said. He subtly reiterated Beijing’s allegation that the Indian Army personnel had been responsible not only for the violent clash between the soldiers of the two nations in Galwan Valley on June 15, 2020, but also for the stand-off with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) all along the LAC. China and India need to help each other succeed, instead of undercutting each other, and they should strengthen cooperation instead of harbouring suspicion at each other, Wang said while addressing a news conference in Beijing. “China and India are each other's friends and partners, not threats or rivals.”

Before the International Cricket Council chief Manu Sawhney announced that the World Test Championship’s points system was going to be amended, India were on top of the table with 360 points from four series.

In November, though there was no cricket for over six months, India were abruptly pushed to second behind Australia on percentage points. So, before they left for Australia on the lengthy tour, the memo was to defeat them to make the final in June.

Read | ‘Making it to WTC final was important’

They did manage that, but there were more twists in the tale. No wonder Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper, called it a distraction not long ago. Eventually, it came down to the last Test of the four-match series against England at home.

India won the last game by an innings and 25 runs and the series 3-1 to cement their position on top of the league table. Kohli’s men ended with 72.2 percentage points followed by New Zealand’s 70 percentage points to set the stage for the final between the sides from June 18 at Lord’s.

Ravi Shastri, though ecstatic that they had progressed, was not amused in the least by the ‘shifting of the goalposts’.

“Please don't shift the goalposts,” he said during a video press conference on Sunday. “I’m sitting at home in Covid in the month of October... you've got more points than any other team in the world. Suddenly, a week later without playing cricket, there's some rule that comes that we're going to go on percentage system - where you go from number 1 to number 3 in a week.”

The Indian coach understood the reason for the move, saying it was because countries didn’t want to travel to countries in the red zone, but he wasn’t about to let ICC off the hook.

“I want to understand the logic behind this because what is the way forward for me? I have two tours left sitting on top of the table, leading comfortably by 60-70 points as opposed to any other team. They say now you've to go to Australia. What have you got to do in Australia? You've to beat Australia. How many teams in the last 100 years have gone to Australia and are guaranteed to beat Australia?"

He continued: “Now, the reason I am saying this is we're sitting on top of the table with 360 points. In the percentage system, you've to go to Australia and beat Australia. If you don't beat Australia, you come back home and beat England 4-0, you get to 500 points, you still don't qualify. So we've had to dig deep. We've had to go down every hole to find water. We found it and earned our stripes to be in the final of the WTC - the biggest trophy in the world - with 520 points.”