13 Apr 2010

Lord's opens it door to all test nations

6:42 pm on 13 April 2010

Lord's is willing to throw open its doors to any nation wanting to play test cricket at the home of cricket, says Marylebone Cricket Club chief executive Keith Bradshaw.

The MCC, which owns Lord's, will be sponsoring the neutral Test and Twenty20 series between Australia and Pakistan in England this July.

The series, which features Tests at Lord's and Headingley, Yorkshire's home ground in Leeds, will be the first time a neutral Test has been played in England for nearly a century since the 1912 triangular series, which also featured Australia and South Africa.

Bradshaw, says the MCC sees it role as cricket's conscience and staging home Tests involving Pakistan, a no-go area for international cricket since the 2009 terror attacks on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore, should be seen in that light.