WTC 2021 final will be played between India and New Zealand on 18th June at Southampton.
ICC Interim CEO Geoff Allardice said that deciding the World Test Championship (WTC) winner in a best-of-three final is not a realistic idea in a crowded cricket calendar.
Team India and New Zealand are all set to lock horns with each other in the final ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final between 18-22th June at Rose Bowl in Southampton.
With both teams set to face off each in the one-off Test, many fans and pundits feel that there should’ve been at least more than one Test match needed to determine the winner of the WTC.
Even Team India’s head coach Ravi Shastri remarked that it would be ideal to have a best-of-three final to decide the winner at the end of the two-year cycle of the WTC.
WTC final should be best-of-three affair in long run, opines Ravi Shastri
Referring to the same, ICC CEO Geoff Allardice said that having almost an entire month blocked for a three-match WTC final would be difficult considering the jam-packed international calendar so they decide on a one-match final.
"The reality of the international cricket schedule is that we're not going to have that month or so, blocking out a month or so for all the teams in the tournament for a final. That's why (a) one-match final was decided upon,” ICC CEO Geoff Allardice said during a virtual press conference.
Allardice further said that they were pleased with how the qualification process for the WTC final played out and it was a great to step to move Test cricket a real step forward.
"We were really pleased with the way it played out. It was obvious that the interest in certain series wasn't just restricted to the two teams involved. It was coming from all over the cricketing world and I think to bring that sort of context to test cricket is a real step forward,” he said.
The ICC earlier announced that the winner of the WTC final will get a prize of $1.6 million, along with the mace, while the runners-up would receive $800,000. The prize money will be shared between the two teams if the game ends in a draw.
(Reuters inputs)