Forgive me for sounding like a worn out record here.
There will be 55 days of international cricket in England next summer - of which EIGHTEEN will be at Lords.
That's three test matches (England v Pakistan and Bangladesh, and then the neutral Australia/Pakistan game) and three one dayers.
It's always said by defenders of this sort of monopoly that touring teams always want to play at Lords. Well, that may be the case, but sometimes you can't always get what you want. Bangladesh played at Lords back in 2005 - a game which lasted about two days, and haven't done much to suggest that they actually deserve another one quite yet. That's not to say that they don't deserve full tests - just not at Lords.
And surely what touring cricketers want to do is play against England at Lords. So why the Pakistan/Australia game?
Grounds around the country are being encouraged to improve their capacity and facilities to become international grounds. Surely the other side of the deal is that they are actually granted internationa cricket to give them the opportunity to recoup some of their costs.
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2 comments:
Yep the Pakistan v Australia game is daft ... although I suppose it is almost a home game for the Aussies -- who would serve the drinks though if all the bar staff are at Lords?
I don't know where you get the idea that teams care whether they're playing England when at Lord's... the venue means much more than the English team could.
In any case, has the ECB had much say in the Aus-Pak scheduling? I would have expected that it was worked out between the PCB and the grounds within the constraints of ECB fixtures.
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