ICC Test Championship winners over the years

The “ICC Test Championship” is an international competition run by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in the sport of cricket for the 10 Test playing nations. It is simply a ranking system based on all Test matches that are played as part of the regular cricketing calendar.

The points for winning a Test match or series are awarded such that if a team wins, it will get more points than its current rating and if it loses, it will get lesser points, thus affecting the rating cumulatively. A drawn match between higher and lower rated teams will benefit the lower-rated team at the expense of the higher-rated team.

The ICC Chief awards the ICC Test Championship mace to the team holding the highest rating on 1 April each year along with a cash prize of $1 million. Australia have always been dominant in Test cricket, holding the mace for 9 times in the past 15 years. Let us look into the different teams that have won the prestigious prize over the years and how:

1. Australia – 2001/02 (Matches 14, Won 9, Lost 2, Drawn 3)

In the inaugural year of the ICC Test Championship, Australia cemented their supremacy by finishing at the top of the ladder in the 2001/02 season. Under the leadership of Steve Waugh, their first stop was England where they wrapped up the Ashes 4-1, winning the first three games on the trot. Mark Waugh was the highest run getter for Australia as the deadly duo of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne shared 63 England wickets between them.

Next up was the Trans-Tasman series at home which featured 3 draws. Australia then whitewashed the touring Proteas, hammering them with defeats by 246 runs, 9 wickets and 10 wickets in the 3-Test series. Warne and McGrath once again did the damage with the ball, picking up 17 and 14 wickets each while Matthew Hayden led the run-getters list with 3 hundreds in the series.

Australia toured South Africa immediately after that and again wrapped up the three-match series 2-1, winning the first two games by an innings and 360 runs and 4 wickets, handing the hosts their biggest loss in the history of Test cricket till date.