This year’s Boxing Day Test could be the last held in Melbourne under new Cricket Australia policy

Cricket Australia is refusing to lock in Melbourne and Sydney of their historic place as host venues for Take a look at matches past this season, declaring there is a ‘good runway to take a look at our future content material now’.

Different states have made yearly waves about probably poaching each the Boxing Day Take a look at from the MCG and the New Yr’s Take a look at from the SCG, declaring nobody ought to have a stranglehold on blockbuster video games.

The discharge of the worldwide scheduled confirmed the enduring matches would stay in Melbourne and Sydney for at the very least this summer time.

Whereas CA scheduling boss Peter Roach stated they positioned ‘nice weight in historic matches’, the hunt for maximising crowds and income would play a number one function in fixturing for the longer term.

The considered shifting the Boxing Day Take a look at from the MCG will likely be thought of sacrilege by many cricket followers

The New Yr’s Take a look at in Sydney can also be the Pink Take a look at which raises cash and consciousness for breast most cancers analysis and therapy 

Negotiations with each state governments and officers on the Melbourne Cricket Membership, which runs the MCG, and CA are ongoing, with the newest three-season deal to host the Boxing Day Take a look at having expired final summer time.

Officers in South Australia have additionally expressed their want to grab the New Yr’s Take a look at from Sydney, and Roach could not assure the 2 venues of their conventional dates past the 2023-24 marketing campaign.

‘We expect there may be nice weight in historic matches as a result of it drives that continued attendance and that continued assist, however we’ve not locked in any venue for future years,’ Roach stated on Monday on the MCG.

‘We have a look at it traditionally one 12 months at a time. As I stated, we now have a runway now the place we will have a look at the most effective end result for the following seven or eight years for all of our venues.

‘We will work with our venues and our governments and our state associations to plan completely forward. We see it as there may be huge competitors for our, I assume, marquee content material, which is terrific. We all know that 12 months after 12 months we now have nice content material to take across the states.’

Huge crowds have at all times attended the Boxing Day Take a look at however with Take a look at cricket underneath siege from T20, that custom might be axed. 

Empty seats have gotten an increasing number of widespread at Take a look at matches with cricket followers flocking to shorter codecs of the sport in favour of conventional Exams

Roach stated CA would ‘interact with the SCG’ about their annual Take a look at match, which has turn into a large fundraiser for the Jane McGrath Basis and a particular piece of the cricket summer time.

‘It is not a matter of whether or not they retain the Take a look at. It is a matter of whether or not we now have received the most effective match for Australian cricket,’ Roach stated.

‘All of our venues play an incredible function in that. The SCG is considered one of them.

‘It comes down to creating positive that we play at venues the place we will maximise our crowd, play at venues the place we will maximise folks watching residence on tv, play at venues that make sense from a scheduling and journey perspective, make sense from a historic perspective.

‘All these issues play an vital half in ensuring we put the most effective schedule collectively for Australian cricket.’

Perth will host Australia’s opening Take a look at subsequent summer time towards sixth-ranked Pakistan earlier than the sequence shifts to Melbourne and Sydney. Brisbane, from Australia Day, and Adelaide then host the West Indies.