The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday apologized to fans for manipulation and errors in the men’s Test team rankings. The Indian team became the number one team in Tests for almost six hours on Wednesday. And later Australia took over the first spot.
India is already number at the first spot in ODIs and T20s, in such a situation, Team India became the number one team in all three formats for six hours. On Wednesday evening, the ICC again changed the rankings, removing India from the number-one position in Tests and making Australia the number one Test team.
On Thursday, the ICC accepted the mistake and apologized to the fans for the technical glitch. The ICC said in its statement that the International Cricket Council acknowledges that for a short period of time on February 15, 2023, India was erroneously shown as the number one Test team due to a technical glitch on the ICC website.
ICC further added that they are sorry for the inconvenience. Australia remain at the top of the ICC Test Team Rankings following the latest update following the conclusion of Zimbabwe’s two-match series against the West Indies. Australia will take on India as the number one ranked team with 126 rating points in the second Test against India starting Friday, January 17 in Delhi. The Australian team is 11 points above India’s 115 rating points.
ICC further wrote that India is in the race to make it to the finals of the ICC World Test Championship 2021-23. Australia is also in the race to make it to the final of the marquee event. The final will be played at The Oval Stadium in London from June 7 to 11. With an innings and 132-run win over Australia in the first Test, the Indian team became the number one team in the Test rankings.
In the ICC update on Wednesday afternoon, the then top-ranked India had 115 rating points, while second-ranked Australia had 111 rating points. The Australian team has moved to the top with 126 rating points when the rankings were updated again on Wednesday evening. At the same time, India’s rating points are 115. This created huge confusion among the fans.
A similar mistake happened last month as well
On January 18 this year also, the ICC made a similar big mistake in the rankings. India was declared the number-one Test team on its official website around 1.30 pm. After two and a half hours i.e. around 4 o’clock, India was removed from the top position to the second position. Australia had again become the number one Test team. But then no official statement was issued on the huge lapse in ICC rankings.