The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) hosting the annual Boxing Day Test in the next summer between Australia and India is suddenly in doubt amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The state of Victoria reported 75 new Coronavirus positive cases on Monday (June 29), which pushed health officials in Queensland to close its borders with the rest of Australia and adopt strict health protocols.
The development raised fresh doubts over the possibility of the next Border-Gavaskar Trophy happening on time and specifically, whether the iconic MCG will be able to host its traditional fixture.
Tim Paine, the Australian Test skipper, also feared for the situation where the marquee encounter could be taken away from the historic venue.
"Certainly, from a player's point of view, we want to be playing in front of big crowds at the best venues and a big day like Boxing Day is something that everyone looks forward to and a big part of that is playing at the MCG," said Paine in a video message posted on Cricket Australia's (CA) website.
"Fingers crossed things are going well enough that we can do that but, as I said, we are spoilt for choice here in Australia with some world-class stadiums. If something had to change, then, again, we have plenty of options," he added.
The sudden spike in positive cases has forced authorities in Queensland to issue new directives which will force sporting teams based in the state to go into a 14-day quarantine period should they play a club based in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria.
But Queensland-based clubs would also be forced into quarantine if they either played in Melbourne, or came up against any team that had been in Melbourne in the preceding 14 days.
Having controversially announced significant pay cuts for all its staff and down-sizing state teams' payments, as well as releasing a lot of its staff, due to the financial crisis faced during the period of lockdown, CA is banking on the lucrative India visit to provide relief.
The four-Test series is scheduled to begin in Brisbane from December 3, followed by games in Adelaide (Dec 11-15), Melbourne (Dec 26-30) and Sydney (Jan 3-7).
