The 2023-2025 World Test Championship was the third edition of a new competition – which replaced the ICC Champions Trophy – designed to crown the world’s best men’s test team. It was launched with the goal of promoting the game of test cricket and building an audience for it across multiple platforms. It has drawn criticism from fans and the press, including from Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack, which called it “a shambles masquerading as a showpiece”.
But it has also attracted interest because of its unprecedented prize money for the two finalists: USD $5.76 million, a figure that is more than double that awarded in the previous two championships. That, along with the fact that this final will take place at Lord’s – with an additional day in case of bad weather – makes it a major event.
The reason why it has been scheduled to take place in England – as opposed to any other neutral venue – is a matter of economics and logistics. England is a good choice for this type of event because it offers strong crowds, an enticing time zone for India and pitches that provide a fair contest between bat and ball. The fact that the final has been played in England several times over the past two years has been a source of irritation for some of the game’s top teams, especially Australia and India. They argue that it unfairly rewards teams from the larger, richer nations at the expense of smaller countries.