WTC: Best-of-three final a great way to decide winner but not realistic, says ICC interim CEO

Southampton [UK], June 15 : The International Cricket Council's (ICC) interim CEO, Geoff Allardice has said determining the winner of the World Test Championship (WTC) on the basis of a best-of-three contest isn't "realistic."
India and New Zealand will lock horns in the WTC final, slated to begin on June 18 at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton.
Earlier this month, India head coach Ravi Shastri floated an idea of making the WTC final a best-of-three contest to be played like a three-match series to decide the winner.
However, Allardice said having three Test matches is a good idea but staging such an event isn't realistic.
"In a perfect world a three-Test series would be a great way to decide the World Test Championship," ESPNcricinfo quoted Allardice as saying.
"But the reality (of) the international cricket schedule is we are just not going to have [a situation where] blocking out a month or so for all the teams in the tournament for the final is realistic.
"That's why one-match final was decided upon. Why it is quite exciting is because it brings something new. Here were are - we've got a one-off Test match to decide the best team in the world over this two-year cycle," he added.
Allardice also highlighted that a draw between India and New Zealand will "certainly a valid result" in the WTC final.
"One of the idiosyncrasies of Test cricket is that the draw is a result. One of things while talking about the structure of the competition was to we didn't want to start the final with one team having to win and one team having to draw, so both teams start on Friday even," said Allardice.
"They have five playing days to get a result. We have set aside a reserve day so that if time is lost during those five days it can be further made up on the reserve day. It isn't a six-day Test match.
"And if after those five days the result is a draw, then the view was that the fitting result is that the Championship is shared. Whether we like it or not a draw is certainly a valid result in Test cricket," he added.
The winners of the much-awaited WTC final between India and New Zealand will take home a purse of USD 1.6 million along with the ICC Test Championship Mace.
The losing team will get USD 800,000 for finishing second in the nine-team competition, which was played over a near two-year cycle, adding context to Test cricket and to crown the first official world champions in the longest format of the game.
The prize money for the team finishing third in the ICC World Test Championship Standings is USD 450,000. The team fourth on the table will be awarded USD 350,000, the one that finishes fifth gets USD 200,000 while the remaining four teams will get USD 100,000 each.