Jim Maxwell stuck on the couch for Boxing Day Test

Jim Maxwell will help call the Boxing Day Test from his home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs due to Covid-19 restrictions.

ABC commentator Jim Maxwell will help call the Boxing Day Test from his home in Sydney. Picture: Sam Mooy

Sydney’s COVID cluster has dropped a rock in the pond of many lives, but for Jim Maxwell it will mean calling the Boxing Day Test from his home in the city’s eastern suburbs.

The “voice of cricket” has barely missed an MCG Test in 43 years of broadcasting — apart from one when he’d just got married and another when he’d had a stroke.

Maxwell will set up in his lounge room and dial in for special comments, but is leaving the ball-by-ball call to those who made it to the ground.

The commentator who turned 70 this year isn’t the highest ­profile casualty of the outbreak.

Opener David Warner and bowler Sean Abbott came to Melbourne early to join the team but have now been told to keep their distance until January 1, ruling out any possibility of either playing.

Steve Smith warms up with a game of touch footy. Picture: Getty Images

Warner trained in secret last night after the main squad had finished training, but has been ruled unfit anyway.

He and his family bought a Christmas tree and have decorated their hotel room in South Yarra while the rest of the team will take part in a traditional celebration inside their bio­security bubble.

“While neither player has been in a specific hotspot as ­outlined by NSW Health, Cricket Australia’s biosecurity protocols do not allow them to rejoin in time for the Boxing Day Test,” a CA spokesman said.

A number of family members of the team have not been able to make it inside the bubble for Christmas and will also be separated from their partners, including Steve Smith’s wife Dani Willis.

Maxwell has been calling cricket for the ABC since 1973.

“I’m starting to get the hang of it,” he joked. “I think I’m getting better ­anyway.”

The internationally respected commentator said he was disappointed but not frustrated to be absent from the Boxing Day Test.

“I’ve grown out of frustration over the past six or seven months,” he said. “Like most Australians I have had to accept that this is the way things are. Expect the unexpected. It’s just the nature of our existence.

“When I sit back and look at all this cooly I just think we are lucky to be having a ­cricket season, given everything that’s happened.”

Maxwell said that at least he would be able to avail himself of home cooking and the contents of his own fridge during the match.

“I might even take a leaf from the great John Arlott’s book while I am sitting here because nobody will see what I am doing,” he joked.

“In the Centenary Test — and not just there — he had a bottle of claret in his little bag and he would walk up to the box and do one session a day. After 5pm.

“Apparently there was no wine left in the bottle after he finished his session.”