India and New Zealand will contest the first-ever World Test Championship final at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton, England. But what will the inaugural winners receive for being crowned test champions of the world?
It has been confirmed that not only will either India or New Zealand lift the World Test Championship trophy at the end of the five days in Southampton, the winning team will also receive a cheque for $1.6 million.
The runners-up will pick up $800,000 for reaching this stage of the series, although should the test final end in a draw the prize fund will be split evenly with $1.2 million heading into the India and New Zealand coffers.
This final should already have been played, but for the interruption of the coronavirus pandemic. But four years after the idea of a test championship was created to increase interest in the long format of cricket, the first-ever winner will be crowned.
“The aim of creating the competition four years ago was to try and bring about more interest in Test cricket globally,” said International Cricket Council’s interim chief executive, Geoff Allardice, ahead of the WTC final.
“It was obvious that the interest in certain series wasn’t just restricted to the two teams involved. It was coming from all over the cricketing world and to bring that sort of context to Test cricket has been a real step forward.
“Twelve months ago we were looking ahead with great uncertainty, halfway through the first cycle of the Test Championship.
“But, as we led up to the last couple of series in the competition, we had four teams in the running for the two spots in the final and in the minds of a lot of people those last three or four months painted a picture of what the future might look like for the WTC.”
India and New Zealand booked their spots in the final at the expense of England and Australia, both of whom were beaten by Virat Kohli’s side over the last six months.
India overcame the odds to beat Australia Down Under at the start of the year, before they comprehensively proved too good for England at home. It left India and New Zealand at the top of the WTC points standings and assured of a place in the final.
So closely matched are the India and New Zealand teams that India’s leading betting sites can’t split them ahead of the final, which gets underway in on Friday, 18 June.
Having beaten Australia 2-1 in a four-match series, India then came from 1-0 down to beat England 3-1 and seal their spot in the WTC final. Before the coronavirus pandemic brought cricket to a halt, India had lost 2-0 away to New Zealand in their previous test series at the start of 2020.
New Zealand’s win over India last February was followed by 2-0 whitewashes of West Indies and Pakistan at home. The Black Caps then defeated England earlier this month, drawing the first test before winning at Edgbaston last week.
Kane Williamson’s side are unbeaten in their last eight tests, winning seven of them.
