The World Test Championships that never were: 1980-2000

Better late than never, they say. This old truism would certainly apply in the case of the much-deferred ICC World Test Championship (WTC), and the belated realisation among cricket's administrative caste that the merry-go-round of endless bilateral series was not really holding the world's attention - the realisation that, as iconic moments of euphorically triumphant sporting supremacy go, being handed the ICC Mace for reaching top place in the rolling rankings wasn't exactly climactic. It is not something that would necessarily have you looking to book open-top buses or ordering ticker-tape.

It only took the ecosystem-altering impact of the T20 franchise behemoth on cricket's 'labour market' and fixture schedule, along with vociferous, pleading advocacy for Test cricket as the ultimate form of the game from cricket's key stakeholders for the penny to drop. But imagine if a WTC had been introduced earlier - say, the first time there was a major existential threat to Test cricket: Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket, which took underpaid players from under the yoke of their national boards and put them in pastel pyjamas under bright lights, sending tremors through the dustier corridors of the cricketing firmament.

Imagine if, in the wake of the 1979 World Cup, amid the coming realisation that one-day cricket - sanctioned or otherwise - was becoming embedded in both the national itineraries and the hearts of spectators, the ICC had had the foresight to drape a little structure over the Test game, to give it a little shape.

Well, we did. We went back to the summer of '79 and imagined those conversations happening and the correct conclusions being drawn. And so it is that, in an alternative universe somewhere the last four decades have seen eleven iterations of the WTC. Here is how they panned out.

But first, a note on methodology.

The principle issue with this thought-experiment is how to chop up 40 years of Test cricket. Superimposing fixed timescales, or WTC cycles, on the real historical chronology of series doesn't easily allow for the central criterion to be met: that everyone plays everyone at least once, or as near to that as possible. So, the series were tracked until both (a) such a point was met, and (b) there was an adequate gap in the schedule for a hypothetical final to be played. The choice of venue for the finals was a combination of (i) aligning with climatic conditions, (ii) perhaps aligning with a series that had just finished or was about to begin in the final-hosting country, and (iii) trying to ensure a fair spread of venues around the world.

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Another problem was the issue of one-off Tests. These were always excluded except when either: (a) a reciprocal one-off Test (or a longer series) in the other country of the pair had taken place, in which case they were consolidated into a de facto single series of however many games were played in total; or (b) a one-off Test had taken place in one country as well as a longer series between the same teams in the same country, in which case the one-off game was simply incorporated into the result of the larger series (e.g. a three-match India vs Australia series, say, following a one-off Test between those two in the same country, makes it a four-Test series in the WTC calculations).

Then there was the issue of multiple series in the same country between two nations in any given cycle. If the combined total of such Tests totalled six or fewer (a pair of two-Test series, say, or, in the case of New Zealand vs Pakistan in one cycle, two one-offs and a three-match series) then they became a single series of that total number of games (2+2 or 2+3 or 3+3 or 1+1+3). However, if the total number of Tests across multiple series between the same opponents in the same country came to more than six - for example, in one cycle England played West Indies in two home five-match series - then only the first series played was considered for the WTC calculations (unfortunately for England, who lost 0-4 before drawing 2-2). However, if the two series were of different lengths, then the one with more Tests would be the one to count, whether played first or second.

Lastly, there was the question of when to exclude teams from the WTC if they hadn't played enough series and/or opposing nations. In practical terms, this meant new Test-playing countries (and, even more concretely, meant the initial forays of Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, for Bangladesh's spread of series was wide enough from the outset to enter the WTC). It was decided that a given country would have to have had at least one series of two matches or more, home or away, against more than half the other nationsfor them to be included. Otherwise, the potential advantage accruing to the established teams who generously supported the new Test nations with fixtures would be too great. However, if a country had played more than half the other teams at least once in a series of two or more games, then it was tough luck for those countries who didn't deign to arrange sufficient (or indeed any) games against the Test newcomer.

If any of that seems arbitrary, it should be borne in mind that the notion of absolute fairness in a WTC, even now, is unattainable. Even if the ICC were to impose a rigid programme of three-match home-and-away series on all nations, that would still leave the question of which venues the games were played at and how they suited the characteristics of the opposing team (in terms of pitch, climate, even expat presence). Fairness means working within these contingencies, and so we have taken many hours to figure out the best way to do so here.

This includes determining where and when the final of each cycle might have been played. The outcome of those finals are, of course, completely hypothetical.

WTC #1 [01/01/80 - 02/05/84]

In the late English summer of 1979, ICC's mandarins decided the sparkly new Word Test Championship would begin at the start of the new decade, which meant India's back-to-back home six-Test series against Australia and Pakistan, both won 2-0, didn't enter the calculations, although this had no material outcome on the final table.

Instead, things started off with West Indies kicking off in New Zealand, where they lost not only their heads - Mikey Holding kicking the stumps down, Colin Croft barging the umpire, the team almost abandoning the tour (despite the WTC points on offer) as a protest against 'homer' umpiring - but also the series, 1-0. They wouldn't lose another until 1995.

Ian Botham's heroics in the Jubilee Test (114 and 13/106) may have been superfluous, but having been stripped of the captaincy, in the wake of what hindsight suggested were honourable defeats against West Indies, he enjoyed his finest hour in the 1981 Ashes. His teammate, Geoffrey Boycott, took over from Garry Sobers as the leading run-scorer in Test cricket, and was himself supplanted by Sunil Gavaskar, part of an India team that avoided series defeat in Australia for the first time, lost 3-0 in Pakistan, and of course won the 1983 World Cup. Dennis Lillee also overtook Lance Gibbs as the leading Test wicket taker.

The inaugural WTC saw the birth of Sri Lanka as a Test-playing nation, although they weren't included in the competition. They began with a one-off Test against England (these two nations will play five more one-offs over the subsequent 19 years before finally contesting a three-match series) followed by a series in Pakistan. .

League winner: West Indies

Runner-up: Pakistan

Wooden spoon: India

Points table for WTC #1:

Final (Lord's: May 31 - June 1, 1984): Widely expected to steamroll to victory as a warm-up for their series against England, West Indies - who had won a four-match series in Pakistan 1-0 the last times the teams had met, three-and-a-half years earlier - were pushed hard by a spunky side under the no-backwards-steps leadership of Imran Khan, and with Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas and Abdul Qadir in the ranks. In the end, West Indies' pace attack proved too relentless.

Hypothetical outcome: West Indies won by 4 wickets

WTC1 champions: West Indies

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WTC #2 [14/06/84 - 26/04/88]

Despite England recording historic series wins across five Tests in India and Australia, they would still finish the second WTC bottom of the heap, largely thanks to twin 'blackwashes' at the hands of West Indies, in the second of which the new skipper Viv Richards bludgeoned a 56-ball hundred, [then] the fastest in Test history. Meanwhile, his mate, IT Botham, returned from a one-year ban to take Dennis Lillee's record as leading wicket-taker in Tests.

Lillee, Greg Chappell and Rod Marsh's simultaneous retirement saw the Australians enter a prolonged transition period, during which they lost a first ever home Test (and series) to New Zealand, largely thanks to Richard Hadlee's 9/52 at the Gabba (15/123 in the match) and 33 wickets across the three-match series.

Sri Lanka played a first game at Lord's and recorded a first Test match victory, Rumesh Ratnayeke's match figures of 9/125 at the P Sara securing the win over India and with it a 1-0 series triumph. They also won a Test at home against Pakistan in a drawn series, this time Ravi Ratneyeke taking the 5-for. The minnows were growing up fast.

India and Australia played out their epic tie in Chennai, which gave the latter the confidence to go on and win the 1987 World Cup, beating England in Kolkata. The tournament saw Sunil Gavaskar say farewell to international cricket as the holders bowed out in the semi-finals. However, in their first post-World Cup Test series they held West Indies to a 1-1 draw at home thanks to arguably the greatest Test debut of them all: Narendra Hirwani picking up 16/136 in Chennai. But it wouldn't be enough to pip Pakistan to second place.

Inspired by Abdul Qadir's 9/56, the Pakistanis stopped England's run of away victories (skipper Gatting being somewhat sidetracked with Shakoor Rana) and fought out home-and-away 1-1 draws with West Indies in a pair of titanic three-match series. They were only denied series victory in the Caribbean - in the final game of the WTC2 cycle - by a dogged unbroken ninth wicket stand of 67 in Barbados between Jeff Dujon and Winston Benjamin, who made 40 not out. The two teams then headed to Jamaica for the WTC final...

League winner: West Indies

Runner-up: Pakistan

Wooden spoon: England

Points table for WTC #2:

Final (Jamaica: May 1-5, 1988): Pakistan arrived in Kingston optimistic of an upset, but the momentum was with West Indies and although Ambrose, especially, and Walsh were still callow, Marshall was on song, while Pakistan's lack of a back-up seamer to support Imran Khan and Wasim Akram proved decisive. Just.

Hypothetical outcome:West Indies won by 44 runs

WTC2 champions: West Indies

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WTC #3 [02/06/88 - 12/09/92]

The third WTC saw West Indies lose just four of their 27 Tests - a 'dead rubber' to Australia when Allan Border took 11/96, and three to England: one in Jamaica and the others in a 2-2 draw in 1991, after which Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Jeff Dujon bowed out together. Meanwhile Pakistan, who would lift the 1992 World Cup, lost only three of their 27 games. They were still edged out of the top two spots by a resurgent Australia, for whom one SK Warne debuted in a 4-0 win over India and made a first major impact in the final series of the WTC cycle, away to Sri Lanka, in which Muttiah Muralitharan also took his first steps in Test cricket.

Sachin Tendulkar and Waqar Younis made their first Test appearances in the same game in Karachi, too, while Brian Lara would debut in Lahore almost exactly a year later, in the middle of another epic 1-1 between the two countries.

West Indies had begun WTC3 with a 4-0 win in England, who went through four captains in five Tests. The following summer it was 29 players in six Ashes Tests (0-4 again) for whom Mark Taylor made 839 runs, still the third highest series aggregate in Test history. The following year Graham Gooch made 752 runs against India (including 333 at Lord's), which remains a record for a three-game series.

Earlier that 1990 summer, Richard Hadlee played his final Test, the Kiwi icon having gone past Ian Botham's Test record haul of 373 wickets in a 2-1 series loss in India, finishing with 431. Those were the only two WTC victories for India in 22 games, however, although there was also a one-off victory over Sri Lanka, who won none of their paltry 13 WTC games.

The cycle also saw the reintroduction to Test cricket of South Africa, who began with a