Hotspot postcodes banned from SCG Test

Endangered postcodes will be banned from attending the SCG Test, with administrators adamant COVID forces won’t sabotage cricket’s bold plan to back in Sydney.

Cricket fans at the SCG will be kept apart by a reduced capacity. Picture: Brett Costello

Endangered postcodes will be banned from attending the SCG Test, with administrators adamant COVID forces won’t sabotage cricket’s bold plan to back in Sydney.

Tensions rose on Wednesday when 18 new community cases were announced in NSW a little over 12 hours after Cricket Australia had turned its back on a Melbourne contingency plan and locked in the Sydney Test.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has tightened New Year’s Eve restrictions with outdoor gatherings now capped at 30 people (down from 50) and households in greater Sydney are now restricted to just five people (down from 10).

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But SCG and NSW Government officials are still convinced they’ll be able to safely host a minimum of 50 per cent capacity crowds (around 19,000 people) at the showpiece Test starting on January 7, due to the resilience of contact tracing systems and an immediate tightening of already strict protocols at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Broadcasters Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting are among those who will be kept away from Sydney as broadcasters plan to navigate through the COVID-19 minefield.

Cricket fans will be required to wear face masks when commuting to the ground on public transport, when indoors or moving around the venue, and instructed not to scream or chant unless in their allocated seat.

Most importantly, organisers will vigilantly exclude any NSW postcodes which are the subject of a public health order from buying tickets and attending.

NSW officials were viewing Wednesday night’s A-League derby between the Western Sydney Wanderers and Macarthur at Bankwest Stadium as a crucial model in action for how 50 per cent crowds can be safely accommodated even when COVID cases are infiltrating the community.

The Sydney Cricket Ground Trust is taking confidence from the fact the venue is split into six separate grandstands which makes it easier for security staff to confine people to their designated area so they don’t move around.

Extra SCG staff and security will be put on for the Test with spacing to be maintained between different family groups, staggered entries and exits to avoid mass gatherings and eliminating any prospect of contact between fans and players and officials.

Home addresses and phone numbers will be required from anyone who buys tickets to the Test or sits in a corporate facility and as it stands residents from the northern half of the Northern Beaches will not be allowed to attend, with the public health order still in place.

The same ban will apply to any other postcodes identified as risk zones over the coming week.

The MCG, which was on standby to take custody of the Test has stopped preparing a back-up pitch for the New Year’s Test with Cricket Australia and the NSW Government adamant the show will go on in the middle of a coronavirus hotspot.

“Seated outdoors (at the SCG) poses less risk than people perhaps gathering in households to look at the Test,” NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said on Wednesday.

“This is balancing – but we have got faith in the transport plan and the work Sydney Cricket Ground has done.”

“We are looking over the plans as we speak. Anyone who is unwell – do not attend the Test.”

Cricket Australia has set up a bio-secure quarantine bubble for broadcast staff critical to keeping coverage of the series alive, however, it won’t include any Fox Cricket or Seven commentators.

The two networks will instead split their big names in two squads to use local Sydney callers for the SCG Test and then be able to send ‘clean’ commentators they have kept in Melbourne after Boxing Day to Brisbane to broadcast the last Test starting on January 15.

Fox Sports will have a full team of Mark Waugh, Kerry O’Keeffe, Brett Lee and Brendon Julian for its on-the-ground Sydney coverage, and use the likes of Warne, Gilchirst, Mark Howard and Isa Guha out of a studio in Melbourne – before they then fly to Brisbane to head-up the coverage at the Gabba.

Channel 7 have a similar plan with Trent Copeland and Simon Katich on the ground in Sydney, while Ponting will stay out of NSW in a Melbourne studio until the Brisbane Test which means he skips quarantining.