Lord’s was the preferred venue for the ICC. So what went wrong?
MCC are supposed to host two Tests annually with their sponsorship agreement. However, initially the MCC were under the impression that the World Test Championship will count as one of those two fixtures. But it doesn’t as the World Test Championship is an ICC governed event and ICC have their own sponsors and partners they need to honour in their events, such as the WTC final. Therefore MCC were quick to pick up the England vs Ireland Test fixture at the start of June in addition to The 2nd Ashes Test they were due to host later that month. And because of the quick turnover between the Ireland Test and the ICC World Test Championship final with The Ashes starting on June 16th so soon after the final, it wouldn’t have been possible for Lord’s to host two Tests in quick succession, thereby taking the count to 3 for Lord’s Tests in 2023. ICC require the ground to be free from activity in the build up to the match and that wouldn’t have been achievable with Lord’s deciding they needed to snap up the England vs Ireland Test to fulfill their commercial contractual obligations.
Australia, India, South Africa and Sri Lanka are the four contenders battling for a place in the London final over February and March. India host Australia, South Africa host West Indies and Sri Lanka tour New Zealand.
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