Australia Day: Cricket fans want the game played on January 26

Cricket Australia abandoned plans of playing professional cricket on Australia Day this summer, but a decisive poll shows they may be forced back to the date in future.

Australia will not play cricket on Australia Day this summer but the fans have spoken - they want it back next season.

This masthead revealed cricket deliberately avoided a clash with the Australian open men’s tennis final on Australia Day (Sunday, January 26) by placing the Big Bash final the following day - a public holiday Monday.

Cricket Australia’s initial plan was to put the Big Bash final on Australia Day before it became aware the match clashed with the men’s final.

Channel Seven successfully campaigned to have the match shifted to avoid the mega-rating tennis final.

In a poll run by this masthead featuring more than 2000 respondents, 96% of readers voted “yes’’ to the question “should major sport be played on Australia Day?’’

It is an overwhelming response and one which puts further pressure on Cricket Australia as it negotiates the Australia Day conundrum which has thorns and threads becoming increasingly sharper by the year.

Australia has played some form of professional cricket on Australia Day for each of the past 31 years and is set to give the public what they want and return to playing on Australia Day (a Monday) next season after this summer’s surrender to the tennis.

Pat Cummins has supported a change to the date for Australia Day. Picture: Getty Images

But that move is the starting gun for the mother of all tap dances as Australia is still wrestling with how it should handle a day of such acute sensitivity.

Australia has many conflicting views on the topic.

Skipper Pat Cummins and Steve Smith are among those to support a date change from the anniversary of the day which the First Fleet arrived in Sydney.

Australian women’s allrounder Ash Gardner last summer called for Australia not to play on Australia Day because of the hurt to Indigenous people.

Australia has not used the term Australia Day it it’s marketing for four years and was in such a bind over the issue last summer it initially planned to instruct the Gabba ground announcer not to mention it in his pre-match address during the Test against the West Indies before having a change of heart.

Sixers and Australia star Ash Gardner has spoke out against professional cricket being played on Australia Day last year. Picture: Getty Images

Former Cricket Autralia board member Michael Kasprowicz, a strong supporter of Indigenous cricket and a former co-chair of Cricket Australia’s Indigenous cricket committee, believes Australia can support Indigenous cricket while also celebrating Australia Day.

“It’s great the way Indigenous cricket is celebrated and supported now and Cricket Australia has a Reconciliation Action Plan which ensures accountability because you get graded about where you are,’’ Kasprowicz said.

“Australia Day for me is more about celebrating what we have got today, about cricket and the bonding power of sport, your community and about getting together.’’

Another former CA board member, former Test skipper Mark Taylor, wrote of the complexities of the decision during a column last summer for Nine newspapers.

“When I was on the Cricket Australia board, our mission statement was “Australia’s favourite sport and a sport for all Australians” Taylor wrote.

“But it’s hard to be a sport for all Australians, all the time. It’s a brilliant statement to want everyone to love cricket, but when you talk about something like Australia Day, you’re going to get different views.’’

Originally published as Australia Day: Cricket fans want the game played on January 26