ICC T20I Championship

ICC T20I Championship

ICC T20 Championship logo
Administrator	International Cricket Council
Format	Twenty20 International
First tournament	2007
Last tournament	ongoing
Tournament format	notional (ongoing points accumulation through all matches played)
Number of teams	18
Current champion	New Zealand (127 rating)
Most successful	Sri Lanka (35 months)

The ICC T20 Championship is an international Twenty20 cricket competition run by the International Cricket Council. The competition is notional in that it is simply a ranking scheme overlaid on the regular T20I match schedule. After every T20I match, the two teams involved receive points based on a mathematical formula. The total of each team's points total is divided by the total number of matches to give a rating, and all teams are ranked on a table in order of rating.

Currently, New Zealand leads the ICC T20I Championship.

According to the ICC website, "Only teams who have completed at least eight T20 international matches since 1st August between three and four years ago will have their rating above converted into a ranking on the main table."

Each team scores points based on the results of their matches over the last 3−4 years − all matches played in the 12–24 months since the May before last, plus all the matches played in the 24 months before that, for which the matches played and points earned both count half. Each May, the matches and points earned between 3 and 4 years ago are removed, and the matches and points earned between 1 and 2 years ago switch from 100% weighting to 50% weighting. For example, at May 2014, the matches played between May 2010 and May 2011 were removed, and the matches played between May 2012 and May 2013 switched to 50% weighting (the matches from May 2011 to April 2012 would have already been at 50% following the previous rerating). This happens overnight, so can result in teams changing positions in the ranking table despite not playing.

Each time two teams play another match, the rankings table is updated as follows, based on the ratings of the teams immediately before they played. To determine the teams' new ratings after a particular match, first calculate the points earned from the match:

If the gap between the ratings of the two teams before the match was less than 40 points, then:

If the gap between the ratings of the two teams before the match was at least 40 points, then:

Suppose Team A, with an initial rating of 100, plays Team B. The table shows the points awarded to the two teams for 9 different initial ratings for B (ranging from 20 to 160), and the three possible match results.