Cricket Australia refusing to give up hope of having Boxing Day Test at the MCG

While Melbourne remains in lockdown, Cricket Australia isn’t giving up on the state hosting one of the most iconic days on the sporting calendar. This is how the Boxing Day Test could still be played at the MCG.

NOTE: To hold for Dec 26: The Richies, the group of cricket fans who dress as Richie Benaud, ready for the Boxing Day test. They are getting trains to the MCG and a train from Flinders St to Richmond Station. Picture Andrew Tauber

The MCG will be announced as the Boxing Day Test venue later this week, with cricket hoping to ride on the back of thoroughbred racing all the way to a Christmas miracle.

At first glance, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ latest COVID-19 road map would appear to put a line through Melbourne’s chances of hosting cricket’s showpiece Test match.

However, Cricket Australia is set to announce its Indian Test schedule in the coming days’ with Melbourne still a key part of the fixture.

Premier Andrews has refused to speculate on the prospect of crowds at major Spring Racing Carnival dates like the Melbourne Cup, Cox Plate and Oaks Day, but Victorian Racing is still hopeful that reduced, socially-distanced crowds might be permitted to attend in outdoor areas.

If fans can be safely managed by late October, early-November at the racing, it would serve as a massive test case for the MCG and its hopes of being able to defy the odds to host a Boxing Day Test with a socially distanced crowd in the vicinity of 20,000-30,000.

There is hope that the MCG will host the Boxing Day Test

It’s understood the Victorian Government is viewing the Spring Racing Carnival, the Boxing Day Test and The Australian Open tennis as special events it is desperate to salvage, in the hope they could provide a much needed financial and morale boost for a sports’ starved city.

Adelaide Oval will host the first Test of the summer blockbuster against India, and then would be on standby for Boxing Day as well if Melbourne runs out of time.

Under that scenario, Adelaide would host back-to-back Tests, before the series likely finishes in Sydney and Brisbane in mid-January.

The overwhelming view around cricket is that Boxing Day won’t happen in Melbourne, but there is a determinism at CA to give the MCG every opportunity – which might be a deadline sometime in November.

Australia plays host to India for this summer’s test series

If community transmissions (down to 41 on Monday) continue to drop over the coming month, organisers remain confident the MCG can pull off a Boxing Day miracle – and the key point is CA will give them the time to do so.

Western Australia’s hopes of hosting international cricket this summer is fast evaporating, due to their Government’s hard line stance on quarantining in the wake of AFL star Elijah Taylor’s quarantine breach.

Queensland and South Australia could become cricket’s two most important sporting hubs, alongside NSW which will host the entirety of the WBBL.

The two big unknowns in the international schedule is where will CA host its white ball matches to start the summer against India now Perth has all but been ruled out? And will the one-off Afghanistan Test be able to survive, and where?

Where else could the Boxing Day test take place?

It’s understood Tim Paine’s home ground Hobart shapes as a back-up Test venue and could come into calculations as a contingency plan.

Adelaide looks set to be confirmed as the re-entry point for Australian stars returning from the UK and the IPL, as well as where the Indian team would quarantine upon arrival.

The City of Churches will also host the first four matches of the Sheffield Shield season in a hub, with the Victorian team a chance of quarantining in the Northern Territory before entering South Australia.

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Originally published as Cricket Australia refusing to give up hope of having Boxing Day Test at the MCG