The Brit Oval to Host 2005 Twenty20 Finals Day

The England and Wales Cricket Board today announced that The Brit Oval will host the Finals Day of the 2005 Twenty20 Cup on Saturday 30 July. Re-developments at The Brit Oval will ensure that the capacity for Finals Day is 23,000 and the format for the day will remain similar to previous years. Surrey has played in both Twenty20 Cup Finals Days to date, winning the competition in 2003 and finishing runner-up in 2004.

The competition’s structure will also be moderately expanded for 2005 with each County playing eight games in the group stages, three more than last year. Each County will therefore play four home and four away matches to guarantee Counties home ‘derby’ fixtures against their local rivals. The quarter-finals stage remains.

David Morgan, ECB Chairman, said, ‘Surrey County Cricket Club has an excellent reputation for staging major cricket matches and I know they will host the Twenty20 Finals Day in similar professional fashion.

‘We decided to expand the competition modestly for next year and this reflects the growing interest in this format of the game with attendances up by 12% from 2003 to 2004 despite some indifferent weather this summer.’

Paul Sheldon, Chief Executive at Surrey CCC, said, ‘We are very pleased to have been awarded the Twenty20 Final for 2005. This has been made possible by the support of Lambeth Council, the consistent quality of our pitches and our great record in selling out and staging major match days, further enhanced by the ICC Champions Trophy last September. 2005 is a massive year for cricket and The Brit Oval is at the forefront with our new OCS Stand to be completed, two NatWest One-Day Internationals, the final npower Ashes Test and now the Twenty20 Finals Day.’

For further information contact ECB Communications on 020 7432 1200