Australia v New Zealand first Test: Chicken alert consumes Optus Stadium as Gilly proposes WACA return
If the unrelenting Perth heat wasn’t bad enough, fans at Optus Stadium had to deal with a food scare that started as a total recall before being downgraded slightly to anything containing chicken.
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The punishing sun and excessive alcohol consumption had a potential rival for most pressing health and safety concern for punters at the Perth Stadium on Sunday.
Mid-way through the first session a rather ominous but troublingly vague notice flashed up on the big screens asking anyone who had purchased “sandwiches, wraps or salads … to present back to the outlet of purchase immediately.”
The instruction was later modified to restrict the instruction to anything containing chicken after a staff member found some uncooked poultry in one package.
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The signs were part of an activation of the stadium’s “Food Recall Plan” and they were confident no more than 20 of the potentially suspect snacks had been sold.
Which is either good that they had a plan ready to enact, or worrying that they anticipated the need, depending on whether your plate is half empty or still full.
BACK AT THE WACA
Test legend Adam Gilchrist has offered up a solution to the looming impasse over who between Perth and Brisbane get to host India when Virat Kohli’s box office side tour next year.
Gilchrist, a proud Western Australian, believes it “wouldn’t disappoint too many people” if Cricket Australia opened that series at the Gabba and handed Perth the single Afghanistan Test scheduled for 2020 instead - as long as it was played at the WACA.
“(There are) big decisions for Cricket Australia to make,” said Gilchrist.
“There’s two lock-ins, obviously: Boxing Day in Melbourne and Sydney’s New Year’s Test.
“Then three into two doesn’t quite work so that’s the juggling act.
“If it’s a case of Perth hosts Afghanistan … I just know that’s not going to disappoint too many people by way of seeing Test cricket back at the WACA.
“I travelled overseas recently, particularly to India, and whilst there’s a lot of interest in the new stadium, everyone wants to know about the WACA. They want to know is it surviving, is it going to be there in the future?
“So if there’s a Test match here so be it. And I’m sure the following year when the Ashes are on, Perth will have a stadium jam-packed full.”
BRIGHT EYES
Remarkable Kiwi run-scorer Ross Taylor has an Australian specialist to thank for his purple patch of recent form.
A Brisbane eye specialist guided Taylor to the operating table for corrective surgery on the last tour in 2015 after he was suffering from blurred vision.
“I was facing cricket balls for a living so it wasn’t a great place to be not being able to see the ball,’’ Taylor told Fox Sports’ Cricket360.
“Fortunately I can see clearly now.’’
PUNTER PICKS PATTO
The competition to replace the injured Josh Hazlewood for the Boxing Day Test got more crowded on Sunday when Justin Langer dropped the name of Peter Siddle as a viable option when confirming Hazlewood had no chance of playing.
As the reserve bowlers in the current squad, James Pattinson and Micheal Neser would be justified in believing they were at the front of the queue, with Siddle, if selected, to slot in as a reserve.
As Langer ponders his many options, Test legend Ricky Ponting believes the choice is actually a very simple one.
“James Pattinson is the obvious one to come in,” Ponting told cricket.com.au.
“I think the Australians would have been tossing up whether to play Pattinson or Starc in the first Test in Brisbane and then ‘Patto’ ruled himself out with that suspension that he got.
“Neser has been around the squad but I think going into Melbourne, Patto’s home ground, he’s played a lot of cricket there, he probably understands the conditions better than Michael Neser does.
“He’s the obvious one and I think he will play.”
RADIO ACTIVE
The belts are tightening in the second year of radio rights in Australian cricket.
Macquarie Sports Radio are using more hometown experts to save on airfares and accommodation as the Test match moves around the country.
Perth-based Brad Hogg has been commentating with customary zest in Perth while Sydney-based Ian Chappell has been absent but is expected to rejoin the crew later in the series.