The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is considering staging games at London Stadium during the 2019 Cricket World Cup, according to the Guardian newspaper.
The newspaper said that the stadium, which is the current home of Premier League football club West Ham United, is being considered in a bid to widen the sport’s appeal in the country.
The ECB is also said to be weighing up the possibility of staging the event’s opening ceremony at the stadium, which served as the hub of London’s staging of the 2012 Olympic Games.
London Stadium’s capacity of 60,000 is considerably higher than any cricket-specific ground in the UK.
Essex County Cricket Club has already expressed an interest in playing Twenty20 matches at London Stadium in 2018. According to the Guardian, the ECB will discuss the stadium’s suitability to host Twenty20 matches and carry out a World Cup feasibility study in the coming days.
London Stadium’s size would likely cause a problem, with one county chief executive telling the Guardian that the boundaries “would be ridiculously short for international cricket, and would compromise the credibility of the game”.
The 2019 Cricket World Cup will take place in England and Wales from May 20 to July 15 – following the conclusion of the football season.
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