Test cricket is 'London-centric', says MCC president

Roger Knight, the president of MCC, has told club members during the AGM at Lord's that Test cricket has "become London-centric" and "the time has come to pay attention to that fact".

Knight's comments come amid fears that Lord's could be forced to relinquish its privileged status of hosting two Tests a year, due to the likelihood that fewer Tests will be staged when the ECB re-negotiates its TV rights packages from 2019.

Drawing upon recent statistics, Knight told his audience of 600 members during the president's address that attendances at Tests held outside London in May during the past three seasons had attracted fewer than 110,000 spectators - 32% of the figure for Lord's.

Several non-London venues have struggled in recent years to sell tickets for Test cricket. In 2012, Cardiff relinquished the right to host West Indies in the first Test of that summer, with Lord's taking the contest instead. The crowd for that match, Knight added, ended up being higher than the other two grounds for the three-Test series, Trent Bridge and Edgbaston, added together.

Durham, who host the second match of the forthcoming Sri Lanka tour, are not expected to bid for any more Tests in the near future following their failure to sell out the fourth day of their Ashes-sealing Test in 2013. In recent seasons even Headingley, where the Test summer will begin on May 19, has struggled to live up to Yorkshire's traditional support for the format.