Not as big a fan as some on here but they said on comms today no test north of Nottingham next time. What's the logic behind that, Headingley sold out all five days and we actually win matches there seems mad to me.
I guess they have to rotate it a bit but maybe would be better splitting Old Trafford and Headingley up so one has it in 27, not both the series after like this one.
Stadium capacities will be a factor. Lords and the oval. The top 2. By a large amount. Ageas bowl and edgbaston both above quite significantly. old trafford and headingly respectively. With trent bridge closely behind. Money speaks quite frankly. Irrespective of anything else. Whether I agree or not. The entire series was sold out. We are way behind on stadium capacities around the world. Our biggest is 37th. Australia has 5 bigger than us. India 21.
Yes the most northerly test is Trent Bridge yet we have 3 in London and the SE (Oval Lords Rose Bowl) its not very balanced. I can understand why Lords might always get a test ( though the Ladies have never played a test there!) but surely it should be the Oval or the Rose bowl not both - then we give a test to Old Trafford or Headingly
in over 30 goes the Aussies win half of them we draw nearly half and have won just 3 - our record in the Northern grounds is a lot better
Lords 31000+ Headingley 18000+ Even Chester le st has a 17000 capacity for internationals. At £100 per day for example an extra £6.5 million in ticket sales alone. It's how most clubs survive. As some of the money is distributed to all county sides. Each year, all counties receive around £4 million from the England & Wales Cricket Board,
With only 5 games and 9 test grounds this is always going to be a talking point. there should be a case where oval isn’t guaranteed a test as seems so now, I’ve no problem playing 1 always at lords. The way money talks I can’t see that happening any time soon as surrey have the ECB in the back pocket
I dont know if you mean in general or Just the Aussies. An article I picked up on. From june 2022 Former England captain Michael Vaughan, however, was scathing in his assessment, suggesting Lord's should not be allowed to host two Tests each summer if they did not lower ticket prices. "If Lord's is going to continue to charge these astronomical prices then they should be under threat from other grounds who will not charge as much," he said. "You can't keep saying 'we are Lord's, we need two Test matches a year' and then charge over £150 in the holidays, during the jubilee and during a cost of living crisis. It is scandalous that Lord’s think they can get away with a ticket price for one day of Test cricket that is the same as what you would charge for a season ticket for the Hundred." It was around this time last year when sluggish ticket sales for the first Test of the summer at Lord’s seemed to indicate the reaching of a tipping point. Two days out from the start of the Ben Stokes tenure, The Times reported that 16,000 tickets remained available across the first four days of the New Zealand game, with most of those unclaimed tickets costing north of £100.
Lords and the oval get a test against the main opposition every year, with lords also getting a test against the other opposition. It is absolutely ridiculous that the oval always get a test - edgbaston, the ageas bowl, old Trafford all get over 25000 in for tests too, and in four years they are going no further north than Trent bridge - which has a current capacity of under 18000, less than headingley, so it isn’t purely capacity and money otherwise why Nottingham? There’s no reason for the oval to always get a test, I get the history with lords but in four years we have a south coast, two London and two midlands tests. From where I am in donny the difference to Trent bridge than headingley is only 20 miles, and old Trafford is actually further - but it isn’t about me and that is besides the point. The next test will likely see Anderson recalled, which with him, Stokes, Wood, Root, Brook and Bairstow, make more than half the team from the three northern counties. If the ecb deem Nottingham as north, you can also add Duckett and Broad to that list. In fact in the next game, only Zak Crawley is likely to represent a club south of Worcester given Robinson seems unlikely to play. So they’ll take the players, and I’m glad they do, but don’t really care about the supporters. No different to the football team rarely venturing away from Wembley I guess.
