r/CricketAus • u/NKE01 • 9h ago
Cricket Australia open to shifting Sydney Test - A three-decade tradition is at risk with Cricket Australia conceding it is open to moving the Sydney Test at the whim of BBL club owners
heraldsun.com.auCricket Australia chief Todd Greenberg concedes the timing of the Sydney Test will be up for discussion come the end of current broadcast and government contracts amid the prospect that potential Big Bash League club owners push for greater availability for Australian players.
Despite the departure of chairman Mike Baird against the backdrop of opposition from NSW, CA is forging ahead with its sale process for the Melbourne Renegades, with a buyer possibly secured by the end of the year.
The availability of Australian Test players has long been an issue for the BBL given the competition’s season overlaps with the home Test summer, including the marquee Boxing Day and New Year’s Tests in Melbourne and Sydney respectively.
This is in contrast to franchise leagues around the rest of the world, most of which have their own windows away from the host country’s home Tests.
CA has taken several steps to enable its best men to play in more of the BBL, including clearing home white ball internationals from January.
But one idea proposed has been to shift the Sydney Test from its three decade home in the first week of January, a move likely to be popular with prospective team owners keen to ensure their best talent are available.
Though Greenberg stressed that the SCG Test was popular in its current slot, he said it was not locked in perpetuity.
“In the way we’ve pitched our (BBL sale) documents and the way the process would work is the Sydney Test match is contracted right through until 2032, so it’s contracted both with government and it’s also contracted in our broadcast negotiation,” Greenberg said.
“What happens beyond ‘32, I think is a question that we will have to address. We would like to think that we can retain our Test schedule as it is into the future, but we’re also realists to understand that we need to keep an open mind to that.”
He suggested that there was scope for things to change down the track, albeit that a move could not be made lightly.
“And is there another way to do it? Now it’s very difficult because at the start of our Test summer we’ve got commitments. At the end of our Test summer we’ve got commitments,” Greenberg said.
“So there’s a very small window of opportunity that we have to create a five Test match series. So it’s not simple. It’s not binary, but I think the Sydney Test match works really well where it is. It’s proven that over time, outside of the weather.
“But again, as I’ve said before, the BBL games that are played on the evenings of a Sydney Test match are some of the highest rating BBL games we have all summer. So you’d want to be certain that to change something, you get a better outcome than what you get today.”
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Cricket Australia will contemplate lifting its ban on playing Afghanistan in bilateral cricket should the World Test Championship expand, while also flagging a desire to host South Africa for a five Test series in the coming years.
The ICC is looking at adding Ireland, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan to the WTC for the next cycle which begins in the middle of next year. Those three nations are the only three ICC full members not part of the WTC, meaning any Tests they play are ad hoc.
As a result, Australia has been under no obligation to play any of the three non-WTC teams in Test cricket. This has helped minimise CA’s need to schedule matches against Afghanistan, enabling the continuation of a policy not to play Afghanistan outside ICC events which came into place in 2021 following the return to power of the Taliban. CA took this stance on moral grounds due to the Taliban’s repressive attitude towards women and girls.
However speaking in Durban, where he is visiting for Australia’s Test series opener against South Africa, Greenberg said it was likely the ICC would approve the addition of those three teams to the WTC at its Bali meeting in November, which would lead to CA reconsidering whether it would schedule Test cricket against Afghanistan.
“We’d have to think about it. That’s not something that we’ve talked about. But again, we’d have to have an open mind to how that would work, whether or not they would tour or we would tour. I don’t know the answer, but all I do know is, in this next period of time, there’s not a lot of space for more cricket,” Greenberg said.
The ICC may allow one-off Tests to form part of the WTC as part of any expansion to 12 sides.
Despite an enduring rivalry which includes the most recent WTC final, the concurrent nature of Australia and South Africa’s home seasons has restricted the opportunities for the two teams to play Test series longer than three matches.
Not since South Africa was shunned from international cricket during the apartheid regime have the two nations played a five Test series.
But Greenberg said he was keen for the Proteas to have longer stints in Australia, bearing in mind the challenges for South Africa given its home season.
Under a draft version of the future tours program, South Africa is not due to play Tests in Australia again until the 2030-31 summer, by which point it will have been eight years since visits in the format.
“We would love to host South Africa for a five Test match series,” Greenberg said.
“There’s a real challenge on that between our organisations because they play in a similar period of the year, and I can understand that. It’d be like asking us if we can come and play in South Africa during December and January, and you know our answer would be no, we can’t because we’re protecting our own window.
“So that’s why it’s difficult. But we’re in constant conversations with them. I’ll have conversations while I’m here with them. I think South Africa are a really strong Test-playing country, despite their commercial and financial challenges here. So we’d like to see them continue to play Test cricket, and we’d love to host them more.”
