Finally, the cricket is on and soon to play a 4 Tests series Indian cricket team will travel to Australia this summer. They will play Tests in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney skipping the famous Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA) ground in Perth. The schedule for the four Tests announced by Cricket Australia (CA) is as below:
Brisbane (December 3-7),
Adelaide (December 11-15),
Melbourne (December 26-30) and
Sydney (January 3-7).
The above schedule presupposes there are no travel or border restrictions to travel interstate within Australia.
But the authorities have also confirmed – should there be change of circumstances, the schedule can change and all the four Tests could be played at a single venue.
“That (schedule) assumes that state borders are open to domestic travel. It may be that circumstances dictate that when the time comes maybe we can only use one or two venues, we really don’t know any of that yet,” he told reporters on Friday.
“There is a lot of variables based on whether we have four venues in four states or as little as one venue in one state. There’s endless scenarios and possibilities…”.
Choosing to play in Brisbane instead of Perth has angered the WACA chief Christina Matthews who had lashed out at Cricket Australia (CA) for not choosing Perth as one of the venues for the high-profile Test series.
Giving reasons for the chosen venues for the 4 Tests series CA chief Kevin Roberts said that the Gabba didn’t get a Test during India’s last tour of Australia two years ago. Choosing Brisbane this time around was to strike a fair balance, Perth was overlooked.
“If Perth received the India Test (this year) it would mean that Perth would have hosted two England Tests (for Ashes) and two India Tests over the eight-year cycle for a total of four … whereas Brisbane would have only hosted two. So that would have created an imbalance over the cycle of the Future Tours Programme,” he said.
“And in the national interest and ensuring we take high-profile Test matches to cricket fans in Queensland, it was a more well-balanced solution. Assuming, of course, that we could get full crowds in play, that’s when this schedule was determined.
“The more balanced solution was to play the India Test in Brisbane, meaning over the eight-year cycle it would see Perth hosting three Tests against India and England and Brisbane also hosting three Tests against India and England.”
Having missed out on 4 Tests Series, Perth will host the one-off inaugural Test against Afghanistan on November 21.
T20 World Cup 2020 losses – $80 million
On missing out hosting the T20 World Cup 2020, the CA chief said that the country’s cricket board will lose AUD 80 million if the T20 World Cup doesn’t happen this year. We may see another round of cost-cutting measures to deal with the impact of the coronavirus.
The governing body has already furloughed about 80 percent of its staff and reduced grants to member states by 25 per cent though New South Wales and Queensland have not agreed. The state associations were also forced to cut jobs in the last few weeks.
Although India’s trip Down Under this year for the bilateral series is estimated to be worth AUD 300 million in revenue, Roberts insists CA would still be short of AUD 80 million.
“The likelihood of significant crowds is very slim – ordinarily that would deliver well over 50 million revenue to CA,” Roberts told reporters on Friday.
“The T20 World Cup is a big question and that’s a factor of perhaps 20 million … we have been hopeful all along that it could be staged in October-November but you would have to say there’s a very high risk about the prospect of that happening.
“And it’s likely that our bio-security measures that we need to put in place to deliver the season will cost in the order of 10 million.”
That would of course mean that further cuts to the governing body were inevitable.
“We’ve made a commitment to significantly reduce the cost base of Cricket Australia. Unfortunately, that means that no area of the organisation will be untouched,” CA chief said.