Summer of cricket: Gabba is back for first Test, competition with AFL and NRL

Australia’s cricket summer will kick into gear on Melbourne Cup Day and finish in a collision with the NRL and AFL in late March. See the full fixtures for the men and women’s teams.

• How player power put Gabba back at No. 1
• Cricket’s SCG power play angers Swans
• Public to decide Smith’s captaincy fate

Australia’s cricket summer will kick into gear on Melbourne Cup Day and finish in a collision with the NRL and AFL in late March.

*Scroll down to see all the summer fixtures in full*

The Gabba fortress has been restored as the first Test venue, while two back-to-back day-night Tests will take place in Adelaide and Perth against Pakistan and New Zealand respectively.

Cricket Australia on Tuesday released its 2019-20 summer schedule with some unprecedented elements, including the jewel in the crown of a women’s World Cup on home soil and a revamp of how the domestic one-day format will be structured.

The glaring hole in the schedule is the disappearing act the Australian team will perform in the height of the summer, after being summonsed to play three one-dayers in India around the middle of January.

The Gabba will again host the first Test next summer. Picture: AAP

India’s power-play has forced Australia to move the ODI series it should have been hosting against New Zealand in January to autumn, where three matches will take place on March 13, 15 and 20.

BACK FOR GOOD: Warner shines in surprise new role

POWER TO HIS ELBOW: Smith catch passes fitness test

The extraordinary late timing of this trans-Tasman series (where both teams will wear retro kits) puts Aaron Finch’s team in direct competition with the NRL’s round one and two Friday night blockbusters, as well as potentially week one of the AFL season.

The first two matches will take place in Sydney at the SCG, presenting an unprecedented challenge for ground staff to turn around the traditional centre-wicket square within two or three weeks for the start of the Sydney Swans’ AFL season.

Adelaide (pictured) and Perth will host back-to-back day-night Tests. Picture: AFP

The SCG’s workload this season has already been a much-scrutinised issue, but with cricket, AFL and rugby league set to be played at the historic venue inside such a short time frame, it shapes a stunning race against time to get the surface into football-ready condition.

The highlight of the coming summer will be the women’s Twenty20 World Cup which will take place between February 21 and March 8 and will aim for a landmark sellout of the MCG for the final to be staged on International Women’s Day.

Australia will host the Women’s World Cup from February. Picture: Getty Images

In a novel attempt to keep Melbourne Cup revellers locked into sport on racing’s big day, Cricket Australia have taken punt on scheduling a Twenty20 international against Pakistan on the night of November 5.

The match won’t be in Melbourne, played instead at Canberra’s Manuka Oval, but follows a similar idea to one debuted last year, where Australia scheduled a women’s international on the night of the AFL grand final in attempt to keep viewers on their couches and at pubs watching more world class sport.

LISTEN: Australian Aussie bowling coach Adam Griffiths, the Courier Mail’s Robert Craddock and Sam Landsberger from the Herald Sun join Menners for all the latest news from Australia’s pre-World Cup camp in Brisbane.

Stream the episode above or search ‘Cricket Unflitered’ on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from and subscribe.

Australia will play two Test series this summer, the first a two-match campaign against Pakistan, starting in late November (21-25) in Brisbane.

New Zealand will then arrive for three Tests in the sweet-spot of the summer, including the Boxing Day and New Year’s Tests.

Pakistan had originally refused to play the second Test as a day-nighter in Adelaide, but CA has talked them around.

A pink ball Sheffield Shield round will punctuate the first and second Tests to allow players to properly prepare.

On the two recent occasions the Gabba has been brushed as the summer’s first Test venue — last year against India and three seasons ago South Africa — it has ended in disaster.

Australia hasn’t lost an opening Test at the Gabba for more than 30 years and Micky Arthur’s Pakistan team must defy history — with tradition restored.

There could be heavy traffic at the SCG early next year. Picture: AAP

Cricket Australia will also make a significant change to its domestic program. The one-day competition will no longer be shoehorned into one rapid-fire block — but will be staged in a couple of spurts in and around the start of the Sheffield Shield.

The one-day competition will start in October, but will then intersperse with Shield games.

As revealed by The Saturday Telegraph, the BBL will introduce a new finals system and will have all Australia’s international stars available for the playoffs.

Full 2019-20 International Fixtures

All start times are subject to change, and listed in local time

Women’s CommBank T20s v Sri Lanka

September 29: North Sydney Oval, 2.30pm

September 30: North Sydney Oval, 7pm

October 2: North Sydney Oval, 2pm

Women’s CommBank ODIs v Sri Lanka

October 5: Allan Border Field, 10am

October 7: Allan Border Field, 10am

October 9: Allan Border Field, 10am

Men’s Gillette T20s v Sri Lanka

October 27: Adelaide Oval, 2pm

October 30: Gabba, 6.10pm

November 1: MCG, 7.10pm

Men’s Gillette T20s v Pakistan

November 3: SCG, 2.30pm

November 5: Manuka Oval, 7.10pm

November 8: Perth Stadium, 4.30pm

Men’s Domain Test Series v Pakistan

November 21-25: Gabba, 10am

November 29-December 3: Adelaide Oval, 2pm (D/N)

Men’s Domain Test Series v New Zealand

December 12-16: Perth Stadium, 1pm (D/N)

December 26-30: MCG, 10.30am

January 3-7: SCG, 10.30am

Women’s CommBank T20 tri-series

January 31: India v England, Manuka Oval, 2.10pm

February 1: Australia v England, Manuka Oval, 2.10pm

February 2: Australia v India, Manuka Oval, 2.10pm

February 7: India v England, Junction Oval, 2.10pm

February 8: Australia v India, Junction Oval, 2.10pm

February 9: Australia v England, Junction Oval, 2.10pm

February 12: Tri-series Final, Junction Oval, 1.40pm

2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup

Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra,

February 21 — March 8

Men’s Gillette ODIs v New Zealand

March 13: SCG, 2.30pm (D/N)

March 15: SCG, 10.30am

March 20: Blundstone Arena, 2.30pm (D/N)

SUMMER OF CRICKET HIGHLIGHTS

Five nations will tour Australia this summer, in addition to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup

Sri Lanka will tour across men’s and women’s, while the Australian Women’s Cricket Team will also play India and England, and the Australian Men’s Cricket Team will also take on Pakistan and New Zealand.

International cricket will be played at 10 venues: Adelaide Oval, Allan Border Field, Blundstone Arena, The Gabba, Junction Oval, North Sydney Oval, Manuka Oval, MCG, Perth Stadium and SCG.

28 matches of international cricket across the 2019-20 season, in addition to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup

The Domain Test between Australia and Pakistan at The Gabba is the first time teams compete for the ICC Test Championship points on Australian soil.

The biggest ever season for women’s cricket in Australia will culminate with the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Final at the MCG on International Women’s Day on March 8

The summer of cricket will again be aired via Cricket Australia’s broadcast partners Fox Cricket, the Seven Network and Kayo Sports.

Originally published as Summer of cricket: Gabba is back for first Test, competition with AFL and NRL