Cricket Australia’s fixturing favouritism is hurting the game and contributes to the Boxing Day yawn
Cricket Australia actively uses the pretence of ‘tradition’ to institutionally disadvantage Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Hobart in international fixture allocation, writes Richard Earle.
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Having buried the entrails of Sandpaper-gate, Cricket Australia must address its insidious fixturing bias that hurts Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Hobart while perpetuating Melbourne’s Boxing Test yawn.
CA actively uses the pretence of ‘tradition’ to institutionally advantage Melbourne and Sydney, and the executive each February provides its Victorian-dominated board recommendations as to where and when international fixtures are scheduled for the next summer.
CA has indicated that a new agreement is being negotiated with the MCC for Melbourne to retain the Boxing Day slot it has enjoyed since 1980, when Kerry Packer’s Channel Nine secured broadcast rights.
This is an insult to cricket fans on the grounds of fairness and performance.
Four decades of substandard pitches and tedious Boxing Day Test fare fail to jeopardise the MCC’s hold on cricket’s prime slot.
The abandonment last Saturday of a Sheffield Shield match due to an unsafe MCG pitch is another black mark on stadium management.
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The reverential tone accorded to Boxing Day Tests would leave anyone who attended one scratching their heads.
Little separates the MCG and Gabba as the most inhospitable, soulless theatres to watch cricket in Australia.
CA had no issue trashing Adelaide’s Australia Day tradition, which leaves a sour taste to this day for the many country fans who can no longer attend international cricket at Adelaide Oval.
Former Test skipper Steve Smith wants Melbourne to retain the Boxing Day Test as he loves walking out on the ground for the national anthem, but that is as good as it gets there.
Boxing Day should be cricket’s great advertisement, but it rarely is.
A docile pitch drove Smith’s successor Tim Paine to exasperation in advantaging India last summer.
Children living in Adelaide, Perth or Brisbane shouldn’t be forever prevented from watching a Test featuring the summer’s best opposition during school holidays.
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Test great Jason Gillespie told The Advertiser a fixturing conversation needs to be had with ‘no taboos’ or anything off the table.
CA, located a stone’s throw from the MCG, dismisses any talk of venue rotation for key international fixtures that could nourish the game nationally.
It is both unjust and foolhardy to lavish the best teams and holiday slots on Melbourne and Sydney.
It’s no surprise that crowds have been declining in Brisbane and Perth before the arrival of OPTUS Stadium.
The stadium’s Mike McKenna wants the Boxing Day Test in Perth and South Australian Sports Minister Corey Wingard says Adelaide deserves a shot at it.
Ambition should be celebrated.
“There is nothing wrong with asking the question. I loved Melbourne’s Boxing Day tradition, which started in the 1980s, but there is no reason one can’t start elsewhere or a rotation tradition,” said Gillespie.
“Why can’t you rotate the Boxing Day Test?”
The MCG’s great strength has turned into a liability.
The greater the crowd, deeper the let down once the first ball is bowled and tedium unfolds. It’s not curator Matthew Page’s fault - this has been a ground letting down cricket for 40 years.
That Adelaide could be overlooked to stage an India Test next summer ignores excellence, innovation and overwhelming numbers who support the game in the City of Churches.
When New Zealand last toured in 2015, Adelaide attracted a crowd of 123,736 over three days.
The MCG had 127,069 fans turn up for its 2015 Boxing Day Test.
It’s so easy for Cricket NSW and Cricket Victoria to plan and market Tests each year while counterparts in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Hobart have no certainty over fixture allocation or dates.
What a free hit.
Originally published as Cricket Australia’s fixturing favouritism is hurting the game and contributes to the Boxing Day yawn
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