Ashes 2023 was a reminder to cricket fans that Test cricket is not a thing of the past, rather, it has its own beauty to it. Despite going 2-0 down in the series, England almost nearly made a historic comeback only for the rain gods’ intervention which ensured that the series ended 2-2 with Australia retaining the Ashes urn. However, both team have been found guilty of maintaining a slow over rate in the five-match series and have subsequently been fined by ICC.
That’s not all, both sides have also been docked ICC World Test Championship (WTC) points, for maintaining a slow over rate.
Under the revised regulations, they were fined five percent of their match fee and one WTC point for every over-short.
Pat Cummins’ side have been docked 10 WTC points for falling short of overs in the fourth Test at Old Trafford, while England lost a combined 19 points for falling behind in four Test matches of the series.
According to the ICC rules, the team that wins a Test in the WTC earns 12 points for a win, and four points for a draw, although a side needs to complete their 90 overs quota in a day.
Ben Stokes’s side were penalised for falling short of bowling two overs in the first Test, nine overs in the second Test, three overs in the fourth Test and five overs in the series decider at the Oval.
ICC’s Annual Conference in Durban made changes to the slow over-rate sanctions in their meeting in July and the two Ashes rivals have been penalised accordingly.
Australia were fined five percent of their match fees for every over they were short, and since Cummins and Co. were 10 overs slower, they were fined 50 percent of their match fees for the fourth Test.
For England, the fines are much more, they have been penalised 10 percent for the Edgbaston Test, 45 percent for the Lord’s Test, 15 percent for the Old Trafford Test and 25 percent for the fifth Test.
Latest WTC 2023-25 Points Table:
Following the penalties to England and Australia, there has been plenty of activity in the latest WTC points table. Asian giants India and Pakistan remain at the top, while England have dropped to fifth place after they were docked 19 points and Australia were reprimanded for 10 points.
Pakistan continue to lead the charts with an invincible record so far, in second place India have 66.66%, after winning one and drawing the second Test against West Indies.
Before the sanctions, Australia and England were both on 26 points each with PCT of 43.33 but after their offences, Australia dropped to 30% and England slipped to 15%, infact, Stokes’ side were overtaken by West Indies who have 16.67%.
Sri Lanka have yet to pick up a single point in the WTC 2023-25 so far, while Bangladesh, New Zealand and South Africa haven’t played a single fixture in the new cycle.
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