This tournament was considered to be the predecessor to the Test Cricket World Cup that the ICC was planning for the nine member nations.

[1] The tournament was almost canceled in January 1999 due to tour conflicts, television rights and security concerns.

In addition to this, bonus points were awarded to teams for bowling and batting performances (see Scoring system).

Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by an innings and 175 in the final to become the first Asian Test Champions and received US$250,000 in prize money.

[5] Neutral Umpires: Third umpires: A scoring system was devised by the Asian Test Championship Technical Committee consisting of Duleep Mendis (tournament director), Ashantha De Mel, Sunil Gavaskar and Majid Khan.