The first-ever Future Tours Programme featuring a World Test Championship and a ODI Qualification League has been released by the ICC’s Full Members, and will span a five-year period from 2018 to 2023. The nine top-ranked Test nations will slug it out for the Test Championship over two two-year cycles starting in June 2019, with a six-series league phase followed by a final featuring the top two sides. The ODI league will feature the twelve Test-playing nations and Netherlands, the 13th ranked side which qualified from the World Cricket League Championship. The top eight sides from this league will qualify automatically for the 2023 World Cup.
Not all matches will count towards the Test Championship and the ODI League, and teams will play bilateral series whose outcomes will not affect these competitions. So, who will play whom? And when, and where? Here’s the complete schedule for each nation.
New Zealand
New Zealand will start their Test Championship campaign in Sri Lanka in August 2019, followed by a bumper 2019-20 home summer featuring England, Australia and India. A Boxing Day Test at Melbourne after 32 years is among the other highlights in a five-year cycle during which they will play only five three-Test series and eleven two-Test series. They will also host Netherlands for a bilateral three-ODI series at home for the first time in 2021-22.
More to follow…