‘City of Sport’ comes alive after a long test

Melbourne is so keen to watch Test cricket that kids convinced their parents to take them to the nets outside the MCG on Christmas Day.

Steve Smith in the MCG nets ahead of the Boxing Day Test. Picture: AFP

Melbourne is so keen to watch Test cricket that kids convinced their parents — some may have needed less convincing than others — to take them to the nets outside the MCG on Christmas Day.

Australian captain Tim Paine said the players were talking about how great it was to see the enthusiasm and how a few decades earlier they’d have been the ones nagging mum or dad to get to the nets on Christmas Day.

Melbourne needs a Test match after the year it has had, even if the crowd is limited to just 30,000.

It is the first major sporting event in the sports-mad city since the lockdown and the first cricket match since 86,174 crammed into the MCG to watch the Australian women’s team beat India in the T20 World Cup final on March 8.

Somebody tested positive for COVID-19 the next day, and the shutters went up on our social and sporting lives.

An eager young cricketer bowls a pitch next to Marnus Labuschagne. Picture: Getty Images

If sport is a mirror of society, then the travails of fans are reflected in the lives of the players taking part in this series. Steve Smith has been in a bubble and has not seen his wife for more than 120 days. A reunion for Christmas was scotched by the Sydney outbreak.

David Warner and family were holed up in a separate hotel, the ­injured star unable to join his mates for similar reasons.

Coach Justin Langer said it was the first time in 50 years he had not spent Christmas with family. But nobody was complaining as the team knows everybody is in the same frail craft.

“It’s been a little bit tougher for the guys who have been through IPL and England and other series, but we’ve spoken about it a few times as a group and this is what it is going to be like this year and for the foreseeable future,” he said.

“It’s our job as professionals to get on with it and do our job. We realise we are more fortunate than many people out there — we are about to go into a Boxing Day Test. It is difficult to be away from family and today, for some, not to have them around for Christmas makes it a bit challenging. But tomorrow we’ve got a job to do and we’ll switch into that.”

Paine said it would be different to be play with a limited crowd. “You see the MCG sometimes with 30,000 in it, and you are a bit disappointed when you turn up,” he said. “But Victoria’s had a harsher lockdown than most, so (I am happy) to have 30,00 there.”

Sydney, however, will have to wait a little longer to see if its Test, scheduled for January 7, proceeds.

Cricket Australia is leaving it to the last minute and negotiating with the Queensland government to ensure that, if the game goes ahead, they can then travel to Brisbane for the final Test.