Tasmania sets its sights on Ashes Test
Could the Covid chaos open the door to a Tasmanian Ashes Test following the Afghanistan cancellation?
Tasmania
Don't miss out on the headlines from Tasmania. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE process that allowed us to host two AFL finals could be used for an audacious bid to pinch an Ashes Test.
While Covid has crippled much of the country, it has opened the door for Tasmania to host a record 12 AFL roster games this year and capped off with the state’s first ever AFL finals.
Now Tasmania is aiming for Sydney’s New Year’s Ashes Test given NSW predicament and with that the next scheduled Test is in Perth.
WA Premier Mark McGowan has the state’s borders slammed shut to most of the eastern seaboard, meaning it would be impossible for players to travel from Sydney to Perth without undertaking two weeks quarantine.
Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein and Cricket Tasmania have already started conversations with Cricket Australia about Blundstone Arena hosting the state’s first Ashes match, especially in the almost certain cancellation of Hobart’s Australia-Afghanistan Test originally scheduled for November.
“I would hope consideration would be given to Tasmania receiving another Test match,” Mr Gutwein said.
“I do not the fourth Test is meant to be in Sydney before the players then fly to the fifth Test in Western Australia.
“Now noting Mr McGowan has some very strong views about people arriving into that state from the eastern seaboard, I think a good option might be for Tasmania to be considered for that.”
His views are backed by CT chief executive Dominic Baker.
“Irrespective of the status of the Afghanistan Test match, Cricket Tasmania is absolutely willing, able and eager to host an Ashes Test in Hobart, and we’ve made that known to Cricket Australia,” Mr Baker said.
“Tasmania has proved itself as a strong option to ensure sporting content is played through the recent AFL season, for which the Tasmanian Government should be applauded, and I can’t see why it would be any different through the summer.”
Australian Test captain, Tasmanian Tim Paine has also jumped on-board.
“The Sydney Test is the fourth Test of the Ashes, the fifth Test is in Perth, I find it very hard to believe the WA government are going to let us travel from Sydney to Perth for that fifth Test,” Paine said on SEN’s Jack & Painey show in an interview with Tasmania Premier Peter Gutwein.
“I’m proposing we get that New Year’s Test from Sydney, then we all fly straight to Perth, can you work on that from your end? I’ll start with my CA contacts, and you do it from your government level, I think we can pull it off.”
Meanwhile Mr Gutwein has also fired a broadside at Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan, cursing the unfair distribution of GST revenues as undermining the federation.
The WA premier handed down a budget with a surplus of $5.6bn on Thursday — the largest in the state’s history and the only state surplus in the nation.
At the same time, Tasmania’s deficit budget will see the state slide further into debt.
New South Wales Treasurer Dominic Perrottet called Premier Mark McGowan the “Gollum of Australian politics”, sitting in a cave with a GST cash hoard.
Mr Gutwein said a state that received $11.3bn in mining royalties — nearly twice Tasmania’s total annual government spending — didn’t need more GST.
“In a state that’s got buoyant revenues, predominantly from the mining sector, now also receiving what I would view as being an overly-generous share of GST, they will be able to provide better services, better support lower taxes for Western Australians, they will, in effect be provided with an advantage that the rest of the country won’t have.
“My view is that it’s not in the country’s best interest, this current system.
Tasmania has long fueded with Western Australia over the GST carve-up.
This state receives $1.89 for every dollar collected, while WA receives 44c, thanks to its booming mining sector.
“I’ve made my position perfectly clear on this over a number of years. In terms of the guarantee arrangements that we have in place with the GST, and I welcome the fact that that guarantee exists.
“But I’ve been clear, this current system is not in the nation’s best interest. It will put one state against others.
“And what we’re seeing now, I think that the worst of the concerns that we raised with the Productivity Commission a couple of years ago.”
Tassie cricket legend backs calls to cancel Australia-Afghanistan test
A TASMANIAN cricket legend and a representative of the local Afghan community have hailed the Cricket Australia and Premier Peter Gutwein’s call for the cancellation of Hobart’s Australia-Afghanistan Test match.
The match, the first scheduled between the two counties and to be Tasmania’s first in five years, was thrown into disarray when the returning Taliban country said women would not be allowed to play sport under the hard line Islamist government, bringing the ire of CA and the Tasmanian Premier.
Kim Fazackerley, the first Tasmanian woman to represent Australia, welcomed the almost certain cancellation of the historic Test.
“I think it is a great stance for CA to take because at the end of the day, we have come such a long way with women’s sport and to have an archaic and backward view would be disappointing, so I think it would be a brilliant stance,” said Ms Fazackerley, who played three Tests and nine one-day internationals for Australian in the 1990s.
She said if the match was to proceed, it would send a terrible message to female cricketers.
“At the end of the day it probably won’t change a great deal for most countries, but I think it is important we do have people supporting that message,” she sad.
Secretary of the Southern Tasmania Hazara Community Haji Alizada said members of his community were doing it tough with the Talibans return, and seeing the Taliban flying over Blundstone Arena would be devastating.
“If Australia was going to support the Test match, it would have basically shown we are supporting and legitimatizing the Taliban regime,” Mr Alizada said.
“Not going ahead with this Test match shows we don’t want to have any relationship or do anything with a regime that depressing, opposing women and taking their rights.
“The Hazara community here in Tasmania we appreciate the government decision and we think they have made the right decision not to go ahead with the Test match because it would have been devastating for us here in Tasmania.”
Mr Gutwein was particularly strong against the state hosting a team representing the Taliban.
“I think it is a disgrace the Taliban have made a decision that they won’t allow their women to play sport,” Mr Gutwein said.
“My view under the current circumstances is it shouldn’t (go ahead).”
He has passed on his sentiments the federal government CA and CT.
“Again I would hope under the current circumstances both the ICC and CA would make the right decision in this case,” he said.
“I would hope that now the premier of the state that that match was going to be played in has now said publicly he would prefer that match not to go ahead I would hope they might take that on-board as well and the match won’t proceed.”
‘It shouldn’t go ahead’: Premier on the Australia-Afghanistan Test
THE historic Hobart Test between Australia and Afghanistan is virtually dead and buried.
Cricket Australia has announced it will not go ahead unless the Taliban reverses its ban on women’s cricket, Cricket Australia has declared.
“Driving the growth of women’s cricket globally is incredibly important to CA.
“our vision for cricket is that it is a sport for all and we support the game unequivocally for women at every leave.
“If recent media reports that women’s cricket will not be supported in Afghanistan and are substantiated, CA would have not alternative but to not host Afghanistan for the proposed Test match due to be played in Hobart.
“We thank the Australian and Tasmanian Governments for their support on this important issue.”
It follows a similar statement from the federal sports Minister, Tasmanian Senator Richard Colbeck last night.
Tasmania Premier Peter Gutwein has called on the Australia-Afghanistan Test scheduled to be held in Hobart in November to be cancelled.
Mr Gutwein made the declaration following reports the returned Taliban Government would not allow Afghanistan women to participate in sport.
“I think it is a disgrace the Taliban have made a decision that they won’t allow their women to play sport,” Mr Gutwein said.
“My view under the current circumstances is it shouldn’t (go ahead).”
He said he had been in discussions with Cricket Australia and Cricket Tasmania, as well as leaders of the local Afghan Hazare community.
“I would hope under the current circumstances both the ICC and CA would make the right decision in this case,” he said.
“I’ve had conversations with both and I’ve expressed my view very clearly to them.
“I would hope that now the premier of the state that that match was going to be played in has now said publicly he would prefer that match not to go ahead, I would hope they might take that onboard as well and the match won’t proceed.”
Hobart’s historic Australia-Afghanistan test set to be scrapped
HOBART’S historic Australia-Afghanistan Test is almost certain to be scrapped after the federal government withdrew its support for the game to proceed.
The move comes after a Taliban spokesman confirmed the returning hard line Islamist regime would not support women playing sport, including cricket.
It is one of the key requirements for the International Cricket Council to grant a nation Test match status.
Federal sports minister, Tasmanian Senator Richard Colbeck, said this stance was unacceptable and called on the ICC to take a stance against Afghanistan in a statement to the Mercury.
Although the Test match scheduled for late November – Tasmania’s first in five years – has not been cancelled yet, it is hard to see it proceeding without federal government support.
“The Australian Government is deeply concerned about reports the Taliban in Afghanistan will ban women playing sport,” Mr Colbeck said.
“Excluding women from sport at any level is unacceptable.
“We urge international sport authorities, including the International Cricket Council, to take a stand against this appalling ruling.
“The Taliban’s attitudes towards women and their individual rights should not be accepted by the international sporting community.
“We stand behind the individual sportsmen and women of Afghanistan who have competed with great pride, particularly at the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
“They will remain welcome in our country but not under the flag of the Taliban.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Tasmania sets its sights on Ashes Test
O’Byrne pulls plug on support for Ferguson, says Premier must act
The survival of key Liberal Michael Ferguson hangs by a thread after key independent David O’Byrne declared he had lost confidence in the beleaguered Treasurer and Deputy Premier. What Mr O’Byrne said >>
World-leading program which has reduced dementia risk by 25%
A five-year dementia study run out of UTAS is showing drops of 25 per cent in the dementia risk of its study participants. Here is what they are doing to stay healthier for longer.