New Richards-Botham Trophy for West Indies/England Tests

England and the West Indies will compete for a new Richards-Botham Trophy when they next meet in a Men’s Test series to pay tribute to two of their greatest players whose rivalry and friendship embodies the close relationship and mutual respect between the two sides.

The third Test of the #Raise the Bat Series, which ended last week was the last time the two sides competed for the Wisden Trophy, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced. In its place the new Richards-Botham Trophy will now be designed and ready for when the teams next meet in a Test series.

The title honors Sir Vivian Richards, one of the cricket’s greatest batsmen who scored more than 8,500 runs in a 121-Test career and Sir Ian Botham, the legendary all-rounder who scored more than 5,000 runs and took 383 wickets in 102 Tests.

Fierce competitors on the pitch, the pair developed a great friendship off it which still endures and the new trophy is a fitting way to celebrate the warm relationship between the two nations and to honor the gladiatorial spirit of contests past and present.

The Wisden Trophy, first introduced in 963 to commemorate the hundredth edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanac, will now be returned and will be displayed at the MCC Museum at Lord’s where it has traditionally been kept.

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