Reports: Tensions between ECB and MCC

A Lord's press conference designed to promote the new Sri Lankan Premier League was announced and cancelled within hours on Monday.

This development comes amid reports that the MCC and ECB are at loggerheads over the allocation of Tests next summer.

Star names including Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Muttiah Muralitharan were lined up to appear at Lord's on Thursday to promote the new Twenty20 tournament, only for the event to be hastily pulled by organisers after intervention from the ECB.

On the face of it, the decision appears to be due to the terms of a sponsorship agreement with Friends Life, whose name adorns the English t20 competition, but the timing coincides with newspaper reports that Lord's has been denied a second Test in 2012.

A statement announcing the cancellation of the planned SLPL media day read: "On Thursday June 9 Middlesex will play Essex in a Friends Life t20 match at Lord's.

"The agreement between ECB and FL precludes a launch of another competition, especially a Twenty20 competition, on the same day or indeed during a period set aside for FL media activity."

Meanwhile, both the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph have claimed that the West Indies are set to miss out on a Test appearance at HQ - usually an honour awarded to all touring teams.

With the Olympics arriving in London next summer and only six Tests planned rather than the recently-favoured seven, the ECB's major match group have reportedly recommended that there should be a different venue for each game, with South Africa handed the prestigious Lord's visit.

Although the Test schedule has not been publicly finalised, Glamorgan chief executive Paul Russell claimed to have won the rights to stage a Test next year for less than a quarter of the fee paid for last week's loss-making clash with Sri Lanka.

That game is thought to have set the county back over £2million, with modest ticket sales hitting the club's finances hard.

If Cardiff has secured a Test for £500,000 or less that would be met with raised eyebrows at Lord's, who are understood to have offered at least double that for games against each touring side next summer.

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Powered by Disqus