It will be a juicy Test series with two top teams squaring off, when India tour Australia starting December 3 later this year. However, the venues for the matches would still be a last-minute call for Cricket Australia, depending on how the COVID-19 situation alters travel plans within the country.
“It may be that circumstances dictate that when the time comes maybe we can only use one or two venues, we really don’t know any of that yet,” said Kevin Roberts, CA chief executive during a press brief on Friday.
As of now, the much-awaited series is scheduled to be played at Gabba (Dec 3-7), Adelaide Oval (Dec 11-15), MCG (Dec 26-30), and the SCG (Jan 3-7) respectively. “There are a lot of variables…whether we have four venues in four states or just venue in one state,” Roberts added.
Australia is also the host of this year’s T20 World Cup, a mega event held hostage by the novel coronavirus. ICC would decide on the T20 World Cup in June. Roberts confirmed that if the T20WC doesn’t happen, CA will lose AUD 80 million.
Cricketers of both countries are left cooling their heels for the past couple of months during the lockdown. It will not be easy for Virat Kohli’s boys or Tim Paine’s army when getting down to business after sitting idle for so many days.
Image courtesy: CricTracker
