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ICC announced men’s future Tour Programme, involved Test Championship

ICC announced men’s future Tour Programme, involved Test Championship

International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the Future Tour Programme (FTP) for the World Test Championship, which is scheduled to be played between 2019 and 2021, on Wednesday. India will start their campaign in the World Test Championship against the Windies in July 2019, while they will play their first ODI series of this league is against Sri Lanka in June 2020. The 13-team comprised ODI league will comprise of 12 Test playing nations and the winner of World Cricket League Championship: Netherlands. Every series in the ODI league will hold of just three matches and it will be held from the year 2020 to 2022. However, ICC also confirmed that not every series will fall under the experience of the ODI league or World Test Championship.

In 2017, ICC approved a Test league championship of top 9 teams in ICC rankings, playing each other over a two-year limit. Each team will play six series which will finish with the top 2 playing in the Test championship final(which will be held in Lord’s). “Nine top-ranked teams will participate in the opening edition of the World Test Championship, which will start from 15 July 2019 to 30 April 2021. The teams will play six series in the two-year cycle on a home and away basis against opponents they have selected. The two top-ranked sides will then progress to the final in June 2021 to decide the World Test champions,” the ICC said in a statement.

The international cricket body also insisted that Ashes 2019 and 2021-22 will have its own separate identity. This league will serve as a qualification knockout for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. India+ the seven highest-ranked teams in the ODI league as on 31 March 2022 will qualify directly for the 2023 World Cup, while the bottom five sides will get a vital chance to qualify through the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier.

According to the FTP, Ireland and Afghanistan won’t be a part of the Inaugural Test Championship. Afghanistan is slated to play a Test match against Australia in 2020. While their closest rival New Zealand will travel to Sri Lanka before hosting England, Australia, and India.

The structure of the men’s FTP (2018-23) includes:

  1. ICC Cricket World Cup: 2019 and 2023
  2. ICC World T20: 2020 and 2021
  3. World Test Championship
  4. Cycle 1:  2019-2021 (final 2021)
  5. Cycle 2: 2021-2023 (final 2023)
  6. All bilateral Tests, ODIs and T20Is outside of the above competitions

About the author

Abhishek Lohia

Abhishek Lohia was a Sports and Political Writer working for Newsfolo and is no longer associated with the organization.

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