Australia’s Test Championship opponents revealed

SOUTH Africa has proved an unlikely Boxing Day saviour but the ongoing generosity of future opponents will be needed to ensure the summer classic remains in place.

The Boxing Day Test is the most iconic fixture on the calendar. Picture: AAP

SOUTH Africa has agreed to play its first Boxing Day Test since 2008 but the ongoing generosity of future opponents will be needed to ensure the summer classic remains in place.

Cricket’s fixturing beyond next year’s World Cup has been formalised in the International Cricket Council’s Future Tours Program with big changes to the format of Test and one-day matches over the next four years.

Each country’s governing body has been told who it must play and where as part of the Test Championship, which begins with next year’s Ashes before the first ever final in 2021, leaving only exact timing and venues to be determined.

The Boxing Day Test is the most iconic fixture on the calendar. Picture: AAP

The South Africans have baulked at a Boxing Day Test on their last two tours of Australia and instead gone home to play their own match the day after Christmas, which has resulted in some ho-hum MCG encounters with the West Indies and Pakistan in recent years.

But when they next tour for Tests, in the summer of 2022/23, the Proteas will play at the MCG ensuring there is a Boxing Day Test for at least the next five years, starting with India this summer, then New Zealand in 2019/20.

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“Who we play, there is little flexibility. When we play and how long each series is a matter of bilateral agreement. Our preference is to play Test cricket in that home window,” outgoing Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland.

“And the ICC understand the importance of the regular cycle of Ashes cricket, playing every two years, so in a four year cycle we would play that series home and away.

“In the summer of 2022/23, South Africa have agreed to play Test matches over that Christmas and New Year period in Australia.

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“The certainty we are dealing with at the moment is the schedule through to 2023 has matches played Boxing Day and over New Years, in Australia.”

Australian summers going forward will have a minimum five Test matches and between 10 and 12 white ball games, including international T20s, with a maximum of six one-day internationals, in two three games series.

There are no guarantees around pink ball Tests and both competing nations will still need to agree to play them. India said no to a day/night Test this summer.

There will also be a rapid increase in the amount of T20 internationals Australia plays in the coming years, with back-to-back T20 World Cups in 2020 and 2021. Much of the current national contracts were handed out with that, plus the one-day World Cup next year, in mind.

Thank you, South Africa, I guess? Picture: Getty

And all one-day games will have meaning from July 2020, when the one-day league starts. Under the new model, there are 13 teams included, and they play eight opponents over two years, in three match series, both home and away.

The one-day league will determine places and seedings for the one-day World Cups.

Among other notable outcomes of the FTP release are that Australia won’t tour India for a Test series again until October 2022, won’t play Tests in the West Indies until 2024 at the earliest, and will play a one-off Test against Afghanistan in the home summer of 2021/22.

NEXT FIVE BOXING DAY TESTS

2018/19 – India

2019/20 – New Zealand

2020/21 – India

2021/22 - England

2022/23 – South Africa

AUSTRALIA’S TEST OPPONENTS DURING FIRST TWO YEAR CYCLE OF THE NEW TEST CHAMPIONSHIP

Australia will play against six opponents, three home series three away, before the first ever final in 2021, most likely played in the English summer

Home – New Zealand, Pakistan, India

Away – England, Bangladesh, South Africa