Hampshire Sued ECB Over 2023 Ashes Venue Snub
The Guardian reveals Hampshire took legal action against the ECB after losing a 2023 Ashes Test to Yorkshire, with the board later paying around £1m in damages.
England's players will not see a red-ball international in the north of the country next summer, and the reason lies in a legal dispute that followed the way venues were shared out for the 2023 Ashes.
The Guardian can reveal that Hampshire brought a legal Challenge against the England and Wales Cricket Board after missing out on hosting an Ashes Test in 2023, with the fixture going instead to Yorkshire. Headingley staged the third Test of that series, which England won by three wickets. The dispute has since been settled, with the ECB paying Hampshire around £1m in damages.
Hampshire's case rested on a claim that the county had been promised its first Ashes Test at the Rose Bowl for 2023, made at a meeting of the 18 first-class counties in 2018.
One fan walked around the ground carrying a small blackboard reading "Free Imran Khan … and get him in the team." He stopped to show it to police officers stationed behind the pavilion.
"I'd like to report a crime," he told them, "by the 11 players out there on the field."
"Not much I can do about that for you, sorry," one officer replied.
The weather turned as grim as the joke by the time Pakistan came out to bat again. Heavy cloud rolled in from the south-west, the bright afternoon sunshine that had lit up England's innings gave way to grey skies, and the floodlights went on just as Saim Ayub and Azan Awais walked out to face a fresh new-ball burst from Ollie Robinson and Jofra Archer.
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