AGENCY
NEW DELHI: England announced on Friday their 2017 home international fixture programme with tours by South Africa and the West Indies included in a busy schedule that will also see England staging the ICC Champions Trophy in June.
In addition, England will also play host to the women’s World Cup from June 26 to July 3.
England will begin their 2017 home season with two one-day internationals against Ireland at Bristol and Lord’s on May 5 and 7 — the first time they have met the Irish on English soil.
Later in May, they face South Africa in three ODIs which will serve as warm-up fixtures for the Champions Trophy — a tournament for the world’s top eight teams in 50-over cricket — which begins with England’s match against Bangladesh at The Oval on June 1.
Once the Champions Trophy, which finishes with a final at The Oval on June 18, is over, England and South Africa will play three Twenty20s — including the first England men’s international at Taunton since the 1983 World Cup.
England then have a gruelling schedule of seven Tests in just under 10 weeks, four against South Africa starting at Lord’s on July 6 before a three-match series with the West Indies commencing on August 17.
There has been speculation the first match of the West Indies series, at Edgbaston, could be England’s inaugural home day/night Test but the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has not confirmed its status.
Once the Tests are finished, England will play the the West Indies in a one-off Twenty20 and five-match ODI series, with the English international season concluding at southern county Hampshire’s Ageas Bowl headquarters on September 29.
“With three different international teams coming here next summer and this country playing host to two major ICC global events — the ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC Women’s World Cup — there will be a feast of international cricket to excite us in England and Wales,” said ECB chief executive Tom Harrison.
“Both the international and the domestic schedule will have a different shape to previous years. And the early season block for the Royal London One-Day (50-over) Cup — with a new mid-season date for its Lord’s final — July 1 — will support both England’s ICC Champions Trophy preparations and our longer term planning for the ICC Cricket World Cup in (England) in 2019.
“It will also allow
players to focus skills on the white-ball game and
help more people to understand the structure of the season.” (PTI)
