England, India docked WTC points in first Test

England and India have both been docked World Test Championship points for slow over rates in the opening Test of the 2021-23 cycle, but have not been as punished as harshly as Australia was last December for the same offence.

After rain washed out the final day of the first Test of their series at Trent Bridge last weekend, England and India each received four WTC points for the draw under the updated points system for the second edition of the WTC.

That has now been halved to two points each after both teams were found to be two overs behind the over rate by match referee Chris Broad.

Both teams were also fined 40 per cent of their match fees.

Making over rate offences carry a WTC points deduction can have dire consequences for teams, as Tim Paine's Australia found out all to well earlier this year, but the ICC has quietly changed the penalty for such offences for the new WTC cycle.

Last December, Australia icon David Boon, in his role as ICC Match Referee, slapped the Justin Langer coached team with a fine and, more painfully, penalty of four WTC points for being two overs behind in the Boxing Day Test against India.

That ended up costing them a spot in the inaugural WTC final, with New Zealand leapfrogging them into the showpiece match which they went on to win in dramatic fashion on the reserve day.

Under the ICC's playing conditions for the 2021-23 WTC cycle, the penalty has been halved, with a side now stripped of one competition point for every over they are behind the rate.

Langer has since conceded his side were "really slack" in not keeping track of their over rate during that Test, and said he didn't know until after the Test had finished that the side had been behind the rate and were in danger of being penalised.

Had Australia not been docked those four points, they would have finished the WTC cycle in second spot and earned the right to face India in the WTC Final in June.

Instead, New Zealand finished 0.3 per cent ahead of the Aussies and faced India in Southampton.

"This might be the silliest thing I've ever said, but our manager Gavin Dovey ... he'd been away, he'd gone home for Christmas to be with his family," Langer told SEN in March.

"It wasn't until after the game that we realised our over rate was down. Now, that's really slack on our behalf.

"I remember we were in the team room afterwards and I spoke to Painey (skipper Tim Paine) and Dene Hills, our analyst, about it. I was a bit grumpy about it and I thought 'imagine if this cost us the World Test Championship'.

"And I mentioned it to the players afterwards that two overs down could cost us the World Test Championship. And so, we have to get better at that and make sure it doesn't happen in Sydney and Brisbane.

"We had that in our control, that's an attitudinal thing.

"At the time, we probably thought it's not that big a deal – the players get fined – but that cost us the World Test Championship (Final) after what had been two really good years for Australian cricket where we were ranked No.1 again.

"It's very disappointing, but the lesson is the things that we can control, we have to control. And we can't relax for a second in Test cricket."

The ICC requires fielding teams to bowl a minimum of 15 overs an hour, and the Australians were found to have bowled an average of 13 during the MCG Test.