Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive Kevin Roberts was confident about India's tour of Australia going ahead as per the schedule despite the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, but made it clear that the venues for the four-match Test series will be decided according to the prevailing circumstances.
India’s 2020-2021 tour of Australia will begin with a 3-match T20I series between October 11 and 17 before the ICC T20 World Cup 2020, and after the showpiece event, the two top teams will play in four Tests at Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney starting from December 3, 2020.
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Brisbane will host the first Test while Adelaide will host the second Test – a day-night pink-ball affair followed by the usual Boxing Day and the New Year's Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) respectively and then a three-match ODI series will be played from January 12 to 17.
Well, given the current COVID-19 crisis, Roberts said that Cricket Australia has kept open the possibility of hosting all four Tests in one or two venues if the pandemic forces them to do so. He further revealed that the much-anticipated series can be played in one or two grounds if the state borders are still not completely open six months down the line due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roberts told reporters on Friday, "We've four Indian Tests scheduled to be played across four different states. 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. We have to plan for all those scenarios.”
Explaining the decision to pick Brisbane over Perth as the venue for the India Test series opener, Roberts said the Gabba got the nod for the upcoming series because it had only hosted two high-profile matches in recent times as compared to Perth's four.
The CA CEO further added, “If Perth received the India Test (this year), it would mean that Perth would have hosted two England Tests 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.”
Roberts signed off by saying, “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.”
(With IANS Inputs)
