ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – West In­dies will de­fend the Richards-Both­am Tro­phy when they tour Eng­land for three Tests next year.

The tour, which will see the open­ing Test at his­toric Lord’s, will be the sec­ond of Eng­land for the Caribbean side fol­low­ing the ground-break­ing se­ries in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

West In­dies won the last meet­ing be­tween the two sides when a 10-wick­et vic­to­ry in Grena­da hand­ed Kraigg Brath­waite’s side a 1-0 se­ries suc­cess.

“West In­dies and Eng­land have had many en­thralling du­els on the field over the last 95 years and we ex­pect an­oth­er great se­ries in 2024 – which will mark the 40th an­niver­sary of the fa­mous tour of 1984 when West In­dies won 5-0,” said Crick­et West In­dies chief ex­ec­u­tive, John­ny Grave.

“This se­ries next year will see us de­fend­ing the Richards-Both­am Tro­phy, as we con­tin­ue to cel­e­brate the re­la­tion­ship of the teams and hon­or the lega­cy of two of the game’s great­est play­ers.”

West In­dies face Eng­land at Lord’s start­ing Ju­ly 10 be­fore trav­el­ling to Not­ting­ham for the sec­ond Test at Trent Bridge eight days lat­er.

The fi­nal Test bowls off Ju­ly 26 at Edg­bas­ton in Birm­ing­ham.

West In­dies have not won a Test se­ries in Eng­land in a quar­ter of a cen­tu­ry and have won on­ly sev­en of the 35 Tests dur­ing that pe­ri­od.

TOUR ITIN­ER­ARY

Ju­ly 10-14: 1st Test, Lord’s

Ju­ly 18-22: 2nd Test, Trent Bridge

Ju­ly 26-30: 3rd Test, Edg­bas­ton

CMC