Auckland, Apr 09, 2024, TRIPURATIMES Desk

Auckland, April 9 (IANS) Christchurch, Wellington, and Hamilton will host New Zealand’s three match Test series against England scheduled in November 2024. New zealand Cricket (NZC) confirmed the venues ahead of the home Test schedule.

Hagley Oval will host the first test on November 28. The second and third tests will take place on December 6 and 14 at the Basin Reserve and Seddon Park, respectively. The test series is part of the World Test Championship ( WTC).

This is the only home Test series that New Zealand will be playing at home. They have an extensive run overseas before that with a one-off game scheduled against Afghanistan followed by two matches in Sri Lanka and three in India through September and October.

NZC said there had been an "extremely competitive venue allocation process" for the Tests which will likely see a strong influx of England supporters. There were sellout crowds for seven of the eight days of play between New Zealand and Australia last month.

"In the past, there's often been a lot of talk in New Zealand about the popularity of Test cricket - without that translating into ticket sales or viewership numbers," NZC chief executive Scott Weenink said. "The difference over the past summer, and in terms of the upcoming Tests against England, is that the interest is being converted to bums on seats and is driving record viewership numbers.

"We're looking forward to that continuing over the upcoming summer, and to welcoming the England team and their fans to the Tests, and of course all the Kiwi-based supporters as well."