Lord's to host next two World Test Championship finals

The ICC Board has finalised Lord's as the venue for the next two World Test Championship finals in 2023 and 2025. The decision was approved at the ICC's AGM, which concluded on Tuesday in Birmingham. The inaugural WTC final was held in Southampton in 2021 when New Zealand got the better of India in four days. That match was originally scheduled for Lord's, too, but had to be moved to the Ageas Bowl because of Covid-19 restrictions in place at that time.

ICC chair Greg Barclay had indicated in a chat with BBC's Test Match Special earlier this season that Lord's was the preferred option mainly because the WTC final is scheduled in June - both in 2023 and 2025. "It's June so that rules out a number of other venues and we've got to get certainty around where it's hosted," Barclay had said. "We're out of Covid now so subject to arrangements being made and being able to be hosted out of Lord's I think that's the intention."

Nine Full Members (all other than Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan) are part of the WTC which runs over a two-year cycle with each country playing six series - three home and three away. Several teams are still in the race for a place in the 2023 final in this cycle of the WTC.

Meanwhile, former India batter VVS Laxman and former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori have been added to the ICC Men's Cricket Committee which is headed by Ganguly. Both Laxman and Vettori were added as current player representatives while former West Indies allrounder Roger Harper was appointed to the committee as past player representative.

ICC chairman election process tweaked

The ICC Board also approved a change in the process to elect the next chair of the board. That election is due to take place in November 2022 and will now be decided by a simple majority, instead of a two-thirds majority - a system which led to a protracted and fractions process last time. That election brought Barclay to the chair and he is expected to fight for another term. The next chairperson's tenure will run from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2024.

ICC continues to monitor Afghanistan cricket

The ICC's working group as well as representatives from the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) updated the ICC Board on the situation in the country and specifically on women's cricket. ICC representatives are hoping to meet with ACB and government officials in the coming weeks an ICC release said to take the matter further.

New members

Cambodia, Cote D'Ivoire and Uzbekistan received Associate membership status at the AGM, though Ukraine's application has been deferred until cricket can safely resume in the country. The Ukraine Cricket Federation has been asked to show that it satisfies a couple of clauses of the Membership criteria, including that they have an administrative structure in place that is fit for purpose, and a pathway for women's cricket. Cricket activities have come to a halt in the country because of the continuing Russian invasion.

With the addition of Cambodia, Cote D'Ivoire and Uzbekistan the ICC now has 108 Members in total, including 96 Associates.

Meanwhile, Cricket Russia has had its membership terminated. The board had been suspended at last year's AGM for continued non-compliance since July 2019 on several criteria revolving around the board's governance.

Source https://www.globalcourant.com/lords-to-host-next-two-world-test-championship-finals/?feed_id=2558&_unique_id=62e0799ab5b65

India to host 2025 Women's World Cup

India will host the 2025 Women's World Cup. Bangladesh and England, meanwhile, will host T20 World Cups in 2024 and 2026 respectively, while Sri Lanka, subject to their qualifying for the tournament, will host the inaugural Women's Champions Trophy in 2027. The venues for the four marquee women's global events, which are part of the next cycle of the ICC's Future Tours Programme, were ratified by the ICC Board on Thursday in Birmingham, on the final day of the global cricket body's annual conference.

The venues had been originally shortlisted and recommended by an ICC working group comprising the former New Zealand fast bowler Martin Snedden, who is also chair of New Zealand Cricket, former India captain and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, Cricket West Indies president Ricky Skerritt, and former England Women captain Clare Connor, who is also the acting ECB CEO.

For the first time, the ICC has decided to sell media rights for the women's global events separately from the men's events, and this was the main yardstick for the working group as well as the ICC Board to consider before they made their final choice.

It is no surprise, then, that three countries from the Indian subcontinent were allotted the global events considering the main broadcasters want the event to be played in the Indian time zone.

The 2024 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh will be the first global women's event in the 2023-27 FTP, which, according to an ICC media release published on Tuesday, has been finalised and will be made public later this week. The tournament will feature 10 teams playing a total of 23 matches, and is scheduled to be played in the September-October period. This will be Bangladesh's first global event in a decade, after the country hosted the 2014 men's T20 World Cup.

India will host the Women's ODI World Cup for the fifth time, in 2025, and its first global women's tournament since 2016 when the T20 World Cup ran parallel to the men's event. The 2025 edition is set to be similar to the 2022 edition, with eight teams taking part and playing a total of 31 matches.

Just like it has done with men's cricket, the ICC has decided to increase the number of teams taking part in the T20 World Cup, with 12 teams set to play 33 matches during the 2026 edition, which will be held for the first time in England, one of the countries that has consistently championed women's cricket. In 2017, Heather Knight's England won the ODI World Cup, defeating India in the final in front of a sell-out crowd at Lord's. That match was a turning point in women's cricket as not just the ICC, but also member countries and sponsors, decided to support the sport aggressively. Former England women's captain Clare Connor, the ECB's acting chief executive officer, recounted the 2017 World Cup, saying it had "captured people's imagination" on "that magical day".

Sri Lanka were awarded the hosting rights for the inaugural edition of the Women's Champions Trophy, which is set to be played in 2027, in the T20 format. The six-team tournament, comprising 16 matches, will be played in February 2026. The ICC, though, has said that the tournament could be moved to a different venue in case Sri Lanka fail to qualify. Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva said it was an "an excellent opportunity" to further the growth of women's cricket globally.

Source https://www.globalcourant.com/india-to-host-2025-womens-world-cup/?feed_id=2502&_unique_id=62e0411ce8ac2