A colourful crowd at Edgbaston © Alan Martin/Action Plus via Getty Images
Warwickshire hope to persuade the ECB to let them become the permanent home of T20 Finals Day.
While Edgbaston has become the regular home of the event – it has been the scene for the last six finals day – in 2019 Trent Bridge is scheduled to be host.
Edgbaston is already scheduled to host an Ashes Test and several World Cup games (including a semi-final) in 2019. Trent Bridge missed out on an Ashes Test and is scheduled to host only group games in the World Cup. The loss of Finals Day would undoubtedly dent their financial plans.
But Warwickshire argue that, if Edgbaston is to remain the ‘home’ of T20 Finals Day when the allocation for major matches from 2020 to 2024 is announced in early 2018, it might be considered unhelpful to divert the event for one year. It might also be relevant that, while a record crowd of 24,432 attended Finals Day at Edgbaston on Saturday, Trent Bridge’s capacity is around 17,500.
“As things stand, Trent Bridge will be staging T20 Finals Day in 2019,” Neil Snowball, the Warwickshire CEO, told ESPNcricinfo. “And there’s no doubt at all they would make a fine job of it.
“But we have opened discussions with the ECB and Nottinghamshire making our case for the day to be reallocated.
“If we are going to remain the home of T20 Finals day after 2020 – and we very much hope that is the case – then it might make sense to keep it at the same ground. People are used to coming here and we have a really good record of selling the event out.
“Clearly Nottinghamshire aren’t going to be giving up the games without getting something else in return. And we don’t see any appropriate games we could swap with them. But our understanding is that it may be possible they could be allocated something else by the ECB instead. Clearly if that is not the case then Notts will retain the allocation but we felt it was worth making our case.”
The move may well reflect an ever more competitive climate in the market for the allocation of major matches. It is anticipated that, from 2020, there will be fewer Tests – it is likely there will be six Tests, six ODIs and six IT20s per season – meaning Lord’s is unlikely to retain two Tests a year and the others will face a fight for regular Tests. The allocation for the 2023 Ashes might prove particularly intriguing.
George Dobell is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo