Last Updated on 2 years by Charbel Coorey

Cricket News: Where will the World Test Championship (WTC) Final be played? | ICC announces venue for WTC Finals 2023 and 2025

Lord’s will host the finals for the ongoing and next edition of the World Test Championship (WTC) in 2023 and 2025 respectively. The International Cricket Council (ICC) made this decision in its Annual General Meeting (AGM) that concluded in Birmingham on Tuesday 26 July, 2022.

The inaugural final of the competition was initially supposed to be held in Lord’s in June 2021. However, the venue was shifted to Ageas Bowl due to the Covid-19 restrictions prevalent at that point in time.

“It’s June so that rules out a number of other venues and we’ve got to get certainty around where it’s hosted. 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,” ICC chairman Greg Barclay had told the BBC Test Match Specialsome time ago.

As of now, South Africa and Australia occupy the top-two spots in the WTC 2021-23 standings. Pakistan, India and West Indies follow the table-toppers in the rankings respectively. New Zealand won the first edition of the WTC by defeating India by eight wickets in the first finale of the competition last year.

Changes in ICC Chairperson Election Process

Moreover, the ICC has gone on to make some tweaks in the process of electing the next chairperson of the board. The polls are due to be held in November 2022 and the victor will be decided by a simple majority instead of a two-thirds one. Incumbent chairman Barclay is likely to fight for another term in office that will run from December 2022-November 2024.

Membership Update

The ICC has also received an update regarding the cricket situation in Afghanistan from its working group in addition to the representatives of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB). They have put on hold the Ukraine Cricket Federation’s application for Associate membership.

The federation will have to mandatorily fulfil some clauses of the membership criteria, which includes having an appropriate administrative structure and a pathway for women’s cricket as well. Further, Uzbekistan, Cambodia and Cote D’Ivoire have been granted the associate membership status, which takes the count of the total number of members in the ICC to 10, ESPNCricinfo reports.