England to host 2017 World Test Championship

[kubrickian]

LONDON (Reuters) - England and Wales will host the inaugural World Test Championship in 2017, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Saturday. Following the annual conference of the sports governing body in London, the ICC confirmed that the new competition will replace the 50-over Champions Trophy. "The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will host the inaugural event in June/July 2017, while the second edition will be held in India in February/March 2021," an ICC statement read. The ICC had hoped to launch a world test championship this year but broadcasters locked into lengthy deals curtailed those plans and it was postponed. The success of the recently completed Champions Trophy in England and Wales, won by India, had led to calls for the event to be retained with its simple format and short duration widely hailed. The ICC, however, have been determined to create a meaningful championship for the longest form of the game for some time. "The ICC Champions Trophy in England and Wales was highly acclaimed and appreciated by all," ICC Chief Executive David Richardson said. "However, the principle of one pinnacle global event for each of the three formats over a four-year cycle is a good one and, as such, the ICC Board has agreed to replace the Champions Trophy with the ICC World Test Championship. "Now that the ICC World Test Championship has been confirmed, we'll work on the playing conditions and qualification criteria, and will submit these to the ICC Board for approval in due course." (Reporting by Tom Bartlett; Editing by John Mehaffey)

http://in.news.yahoo.com/england-host-2017-world-test-championship-183835928.html Isnt England getting to host too many international tournaments ? Champions Trophy, World Cup in 2019 and World Test Championship in 2017 ? They have the Ashes tests too. They are going to make some serious dough out of all this. I also wonder what the format of this tournament will be and how many teams get to participate.

[StriKe]

http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=300563 - Topic needs title update.

[Precambrian]

Gonna be a disaster in terms of TV revenue. If it happens, going to be a dud and likely to get canned forever.

[Sundar88]

The ICC is clearly biased in favor of England, this whole talk about Lords' being the home of cricket and a special place is bullshit and it really annoys me when people talk about it being a special venue. It's just unfair how England have hosted more world cups and ICC tournaments than anyone else already(they hosted 2 consecutive world cups in 1975 and 1979) and just hosted the Champs Trophy which this test championship just replaced. That's like hosting 2 consecutive world cups again. Compared to limited overs Cricket, playing at home gives a massive advantage to any team in test cricket so it shouldn't be played in a single country. Every participating country should be allowed to host an equal number of matches and the knockout matches(if any) should ideally be played at neutral venues. This will cost a lot but hey, Test Cricket itself isn't as commercially lucrative as limited overs cricket to begin with so if they've decided to prioritize Test Cricket over making money they might as well do it as fairly as they can otherwise this tournament will have no credibility in my eyes. I think the ICC just wants England and Australia to be the best teams in Test Cricket.

[Sean Bradley]

Going to be one hell of a competition if weather stays true.

[BeautifulGame]

The ICC is clearly biased in favor of England' date=' this whole talk about Lords' being the home of cricket and a special place is bullshit and it really annoys me when people talk about it being a special venue. It's just unfair how England have hosted more world cups and ICC tournaments than anyone else already(they hosted 2 consecutive world cups in 1975 and 1979) and just hosted the Champs Trophy which this test championship just replaced. That's like hosting 2 consecutive world cups again. Compared to limited overs Cricket, playing at home gives a massive advantage to any team in test cricket so it shouldn't be played in a single country. Every participating country should be allowed to host an equal number of matches and the knockout matches(if any) should ideally be played at neutral venues. This will cost a lot but hey, Test Cricket itself isn't as commercially lucrative as limited overs cricket to begin with so if they've decided to prioritize Test Cricket over making money they might as well do it as fairly as they can otherwise this tournament will have no credibility in my eyes. I think the ICC just wants England and Australia to be the best teams in Test Cricket.[/quote'] TBF to ICC England is the only country which gets decent crowds for tests somewhat regularly.Anywhere else the test championship final if the hosts dont qualify will be played in near empty stadiums.

[G_B_]

what are you people talking about England is the best possible location to host a test world cup. During the English summer June and July sunrise is at 5am and sunset is at 9pm. Your talking natural light. They will start play at 12pm UK time (have lunch at 1pm) which will mean play starting at 4:30pm in India. All those who have to come back home from office/school can easily catch majority of the action in the day even on a workday.Its prime time viewing in India. if you had it in India most would not be able to watch due to work, except for Sat and Sun. If anything India should be playing more teams in England or even South africa for tests. Its perfect viewing time. TV audiences will be huge.

[G_B_]

Infact if you live in the US of A a 12pm start in the UK is much more beneficial for you in terms of hours of watching as well. ranging form 6am to 8am coast to coast. Atleast you can watch sat and sunday without any hitch.

[Desi Cartman]

Test championships in England, Rain will the first test champion.

[carnish]

@ G_B ... not everything is about TV audiences. Its about the money the host country generates from such events. ICC cannot discriminate among nations because other poor nations need to host such events for them to generate enough moolah and exist competitively.

[G_B_]

@ G_B ... not everything is about TV audiences. Its about the money the host country generates from such events. ICC cannot discriminate among nations because other poor nations need to host such events for them to generate enough moolah and exist competitively.

profits from all ICC events are distributed equally among the remaining 9 test playing nations. More money the icc generates more money gets pumped into the likes of WI, SL, Zim, BD and NZ ECB for eg will make money auctioning the tests to grounds in the UK. Successful ground will make money via tickets.

[carnish]

profits from all ICC events are distributed equally among the remaining 9 test playing nations. More money the icc generates more money gets pumped into the likes of WI, SL, Zim, BD and NZ ECB for eg will make money auctioning the tests to grounds in the UK. Successful ground will make money via tickets.

Err sorry ... Its like the congress giving pies to poor people in India but how long can they do it. Ultimately you have to increase popularity of the sport in other countries and create good support and that can be done by taking these events and the superstars to those places so that in future countries will have home support and more people interested in the game.

[Sundar88]

TBF to ICC England is the only country which gets decent crowds for tests somewhat regularly.Anywhere else the test championship final if the hosts dont qualify will be played in near empty stadiums.

That's a terrible reason. How do you know there would be as much crowd in England grounds for test matches when England are not playing? How often have test matches been played at neutral venues for you to say that? Similarly how do you know Indian grounds would be empty? Also Indian grounds have more spectators than anywhere else for T20 and ODI matches. Then why not allow India to host back to back world cups as well? The very reason they've decided to replace the Champs Trophy with the World Test Championship is that they want to revive and make test Cricket more relevant, if money was more important to them they'd have stuck with the Champs Trophy instead of shoving test Cricket onto us cricket followers, majority of who clearly prefer Limited Overs Cricket. So if they're going to do this they might as well do it fairly. The real reason of course is that deep down there is this bias toward England and Lord's in particular that it was the birthplace of Cricket therefore it is fitting that the first world level test event should be played there. The problem is that compared to ODI and T20 cricket, the home team enjoys a significant advantage, an unfair advantage England don't deserve. To me this tournament is just like the Champions League.

[Sundar88]

what are you people talking about England is the best possible location to host a test world cup. During the English summer June and July sunrise is at 5am and sunset is at 9pm. Your talking natural light. They will start play at 12pm UK time (have lunch at 1pm) which will mean play starting at 4:30pm in India. All those who have to come back home from office/school can easily catch majority of the action in the day even on a workday.Its prime time viewing in India. if you had it in India most would not be able to watch due to work, except for Sat and Sun. If anything India should be playing more teams in England or even South africa for tests. Its perfect viewing time. TV audiences will be huge.

I don't give a rats ass about money or viewership. I want fairness. I don't want England(or any team for that matter) to have the unfair advantage of being able to host so many important tournaments(even though they've only managed one ICC trophy that's contested every 2 years which goes to show how overrated they are but that's besides the point). If it was all about money then all limited overs cricket would be played only in India. That's clearly not how it works.The real reason as I pointed out is this bias in favor of England and Lord's.

[The Outsider]

Test championships in England' date=' Rain will the first test champion.[/quote'] There are very few drawn tests in England over the last few years due to the weather - the grounds have top notch drainage.

[Royal]

Rain Stops Play :: Regular Update :hysterical:

[Rocky Balboa]

Australia would be more interesting...uk weather sucks big time...