The Wisden World Championship

The Wisden World Championship - intended as a temporary measure while the International Cricket Council decided the form of an official Championship - is beginning to assume an ominous air of permanence.

Though ICC has agreed on the idea of a Championship, it yet again proved unable to agree on its form at the executive meeting in January 1999, and so the Wisden version goes on, if necessary indefinitely. At the top of the table, Australia are also beginning to assume an air of permanence, ominous for everyone else. When they won a series in Pakistan in October 1998, they reached 25 points out of 28, having won their last home series against all their opponents, and their last away series against everyone except India (where they lost in March 1998) and New Zealand (where they drew in March 1993). They were still to play a Test against Zimbabwe.

There was one major change in the organisation of the Championship in 1998. The basic system remains the same: the most recent series, both home and away, between each pair of countries count. Teams receive two points for winning a series, and one for drawing. And a one-off Test counts as a series. But not everyone has played everyone else.

Originally the Wisden table was determined by the difference between series played and points won. But this created an apparent anomaly at the foot of the table, because New Zealand have fulfilled all their fixtures while Zimbabwe (through absolutely no fault of their own) are not even close. Following many protests from New Zealand, Wisden agreed to decide the table on the average points per series instead. It did New Zealand little good. After triumphing in Pakistan, Zimbabwe leapfrogged back over the New Zealanders, and indeed began to threaten England in seventh place. Sri Lanka are the biggest climbers, having risen from seventh to fourth in six months.

It was also decided that, in future, series not renewed after seven years would be excluded from the table, recalculation to take place in September each year. The current table includes series played since September 1991. As Wisden went to press, we were finalising plans as to how to incorporate the neutral ground Test - the first in 87 years - that was scheduled for Dhaka in 1999 as the culmination of the Asian Test Championship.

THE WISDEN CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE

Previous leaders: October 13--December 12, 1996 South Africa; December 12--January 28, 1997 Australia, South Africa and West Indies (joint); Australia have led since January 28, 1997.