In cricket, the toss is the flipping of a coin to determine which captain will have the right to choose whether their team will bat or field at the start of the match. Before play begins, the captain of each side will inspect the pitch. Based on the pitch and weather conditions, the captains select their final eleven players. If the pitch is soft or dusty, the captain will tend to select more spin bowlers; if the pitch is hard, the choice tends to favor fast bowlers at the expense of spinners. Half an hour before the start of play, the two captains convene and exchange team selection sheets. This lists the composition of each side, which cannot be changed for the duration of the match, other than in the case of a concussion substitute. Then, with the supervision of the umpires, a coin is tossed to determine which captain will have the right to choose whether to bat or field. The decision is of great tactical importance, and the captain will have considered many variables before arriving at their decision. Because of the different natures of the games, it is considerably more common to choose to bat second in one-day cricket than it is in Test cricket due to batting conditions being difficult in 4th Innings. The umpire's call of play marks the official beginning of the match. If the match is abandoned at any time after the toss, it stands as a match played and enters official statistical records. If a match is abandoned before the toss, it is not considered to have been played at all and does not count for records. The toss may be delayed, for example, due to bad weather. The traditional method of the tossing of a coin in test match cricket has been practiced in the 141 years of Test cricket history from the inaugural test match in 1877. Scrapping the coin toss In 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) proposed the scrapping of the traditional coin toss in Test cricket matches, citing instances when host nations were criticised for, and sometimes found guilty of, changing the pitch conditions to suit themselves when playing this longest format of the game. The ICC proposed instead that the away (visiting) team should be given the right to choose whether to bat first or field first. The ICC announced that this would be implemented in