The final match of the World Test Championship (WTC) will be played between India and Australia. The match will take place at The Oval ground in London, England. The first final of WTC was also held in England and the final of 2025 will also be held in England. In 2021, India and New Zealand clashed for the championship at Southampton. At the same time, in 2025, the third final of the championship will be played at the Lord's ground in London.
In such a situation, the question arises that why the International Cricket Council (ICC) is organizing the WTC final every time in England. We will know the answer to this question with the help of 4 factors and understand why India, Australia or any third country was not given the hosting of the championship.
Also Read: India Schedule Asia Cup and World Cup
India is the biggest market for cricket. India has the largest number of cricket spectators. Because of this, the maximum earning is also from India. In the revenue model of ICC released recently, India will be given a share of 38.5% of ICC's earnings for the next 4 years. No other country will get even 7% share of the earnings.
The reason behind giving such a high share to India is the audience of India and the income of ICC with the help of BCCI. The highest earning of ICC is with the help of BCCI. In such a situation, the ICC keeps the timing of most of the tournaments in view of the Indian audience.
In the WTC final, which will be played in England from June 7 to 11, the day's play will start at 3:30 pm Indian time and will run till 11:00 pm. Which is like prime time for the cricket watching audience in India. Even if Team India does not reach the finals of the WTC, most of the spectators watching ICC events are Indians.
Apart from England, Test matches are held in Asian countries and South Africa only according to the timing of the Indian audience. But cricket is not played in all these countries during June and the ICC pre-fixes a window for each event. Keeping in view the busy schedule of world cricket and franchise cricket happening around the world, ICC kept the window of WTC final in the month of June. That is, from 2021 to 2025, the final of the Test Championship is scheduled to be held in this month.
Along with England, cricket is also possible in Sri Lanka and West Indies during June. Matches are held in Sri Lanka during this time, but sometimes there are problems due to rain. And in the West Indies, day-test matches start at 7:30 pm. In such a situation, the end of the day's game is 3:00 in the night, which is not suitable for the Indian audience as well as for Australia, Asia and other test playing nations.
The weather here is also the biggest reason for no cricket in countries like India, Australia and South Africa during June. It starts raining in India during this time, whereas in South Africa it is ending during this time. Whereas in Australia it is very cold during this time, in which cricket is not possible. For this reason, the rest of the countries, including Australia, visit those countries during this period where cricket is possible in June, July and August.
The summer season in England lasts from May to September. Although it is cold throughout the year in England and it can rain anytime, but the summer season lasts from May to August. During this time many tourists reach here for sightseeing. According to the Visit Britain website, more than 3.8 million tourists arrived in England during June-July last year. Which is the highest in the whole year.
Visitors come to England in the summer, during which all three formats of England's domestic tournaments (County Championship, T20 Blast and ODI-Cup) also take place. England's franchise cricket tournament 'The Hundred' takes place from late July to August after the domestic tournament is over by the early week of July. During this, international cricket continues here. Rain rarely causes problems in England from May to September.
England is one of the few countries that ruled the entire world in history. This is the reason that even now when all the countries have become independent, out of 5.60 crore people of the population of England, 9% people (about 60 lakhs) are from other countries only. Of these, about 18.65 lakh (3.1%) are Indians, which means there will never be a shortage of fans to support Team India, be it a match on any ground in England.
This is the matter of the country of England, but how many Indians are there in London, where the final of WTC will be held? The population of London is about 90 lakhs, here also more than 7% (about 6.56 lakhs) people are Indians. London has the highest number of migrants at 37% (about 3.35 million) as compared to 9% for the whole of England. Apart from Indians, there are also about 54 thousand Australians here. As such, there is little chance that even one of The Oval Stadium's 27,500 seats will remain vacant during the final.
The ICC has currently fixed the June slot for the WTC final. But compared to other countries, England has been given the maximum number of men's events by the ICC. England also hosted the first 3 editions (1975, 1979 and 1983) of ICC's first event ODI World Cup.
Initially, the reason for doing this was that most cricket was played in this country and the structure of the cricket ground in England was much more advanced than other countries till that time. But after India and Pakistan got the World Cup hosting rights during 1987, other countries also started getting hosting rights for ICC events.
Talking about the ICC Senior Men's Tournament, England has hosted the Champions Trophy, T20 World Cup, ODI World Cup and World Test Championship final for the maximum number of 11 times. Whereas India is at number two with hosting 6 events. Sri Lanka has hosted 4 ICC events. At the same time, apart from these three, no country has hosted more than 3 events.
Also Read: India Schedule Asia Cup and World Cup
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