England ODIs to be held in Antigua, Barbados

England ODIs to be held in Antigua, Barbados

England will play two ODIs in Antigua and one in Barbados when they tour the Caribbean early next year. The short 50-over series will form part of England's build-up to the Champions Trophy, a tournament for which West Indies failed to qualify.

The England team is scheduled to arrive in St Kitts on February 22 for two warm-up matches against a WICB President's XI, before going on to Antigua for two ODIs at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium - where the West Indies-England Test was abandoned in 2009. The two-week tour will conclude with a third ODI at Kensington Oval on March 9.

"We are pleased to have agreed the itinerary for this tour, which will form an important part of our one-day squad's preparations for the Champions Trophy in England and Wales later in the summer," Andrew Strauss, the ECB's director of England cricket, said.

"West Indies is always a popular tour destination for England fans and we trust as many supporters as possible will travel to the Caribbean to show support for the team."

The schedule is similar to that of England's limited-overs tour of the West Indies in 2014, when they played three ODIs in Antigua before going on to Barbados for three T20s.

WICB chief executive, Michael Muirhead said: "We see this an additional opportunity to strengthen our performances in this format as we aim to move up in the rankings. We are pleased once again to have England in the region and as always we know the contest will be keen and we know the fans will come out in their numbers."

West Indies are currently ranked No. 8 in ODI cricket but missed out on the Champions Trophy have slipped below Bangladesh and Pakistan to ninth at last year's cut-off.

very nice ....they wanna repeat  :-[

LoL