Money or politics? Cricket Australia’s $17m Ashes Test conundrum

West Australian premier Mark McGowan’s closed border populism has left Cricket Australia with an age-old conundrum to decide on the venue for the fifth Ashes Test - loyalty to the game’s federal structure or hunger for revenue in the time of COVID-19.

Sources have told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald there may be as much as a $17-million gap in the revenue able to be generated depending on the venue chosen for the final Test - a significant number given CA has been grappling with a couple of recent monetary holes blown in the budgets presented in this year’s annual report.

Perth’s men’s Ashes Test is “under real threat” according to the Cricket WA chief executive Christina Matthews.Credit: Getty Images

Major Test matches - think England or India - have tended to generate revenue of $20-22 million for an MCG Test in recent years, versus $10-15 million for the SCG. Hobart’s Bellerive Oval, by contrast, would raise closer to the $4-5 million mark.

These numbers are balanced by considerably smaller profit margins, but greater scale generally means more chance of a surplus that can be reinvested into cricket over the following 12 months. Another consideration will be the costs of logistics for broadcasters.

Some typical posturing from McGowan on Tuesday left CA with more or less no option but to move the final match of the series against England from Perth to a day/night match in the eastern states from January 14-18.

“We have put in place very strict rules,” McGowan said in Perth. “So we’ve said to them, ‘You need to have 14 days’ quarantine, ′ and that has to apply to all the broadcast staff, the cricket staff.

“They can’t just bring wives and girlfriends with them - same rules as we put in place for the AFL. It’s up to them whether they want to adhere to those rules or not.”

Those words put an effective stop to any hopes that WA had of hosting an Ashes Test because players and staff on both sides have been operating under the expectation that once initial quarantine has been served in Queensland, there will be no more of the same.

Similarly, partners and families are expected to be allowed to stay with the teams throughout, including the group flying in from the UK to Melbourne in mid-December ahead of the Christmas/New Year holiday period.

That means CA’s chief executive Nick Hockley and the governing body’s board of directors are left to decide between Cricket Tasmania’s expectation of a first Test match in Hobart since 2016, when South Africa thrashed a team then led by Steve Smith, or the more lucrative possibilities of Melbourne and Sydney.

As of Tuesday, the most likely scenario is to play the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, the New Year’s match at the SCG, and then return to Melbourne for a floodlit final match of the series in mid-January, a slot that has previously been known for drawing huge limited overs crowds to the MCG.

England’s wicketkeeper and potential middle order destroyer Jos Buttler made it clear on Tuesday that family comfort was a high priority for the tourists. Equally, he said they would be in favour of a second pink ball game in the same series.

“Getting the families out here was a huge part of the initial negotiations, we want them to be able to travel around with us,” he said. “I’m sure if we can move interstate, I can’t see why the families inside the bubble can’t move around with us.

“I’m confident with our team whatever colour the ball is, I’ve never played a pink ball Test but having watched the game in Adelaide, it’s a great occasion. If there is one place in the world where day-night Test cricket seems to work, it’s Australia. I’m only saying that from a spectator’s point of view. It would make for a unique Ashes series.

“It’s already unique; the traditionalists would love it to be probably five red ball games. [But] if that had to happen or that was in the best interest of the games running smoothly, you’d have to be open to it.”

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