Cricket Australia pondering over Test series vs India: CA are showing significant interest in not shortening/delaying India’s tour of Australia.
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There is no going into a safe house regarding the fact that the novel COVID-19 pandemic has affected the cricket itinerary. While the ongoing matches and the ones in the near future including the 13th season of the Indian Premier League have been postponed, the ones in the distant future might also get affected.
As far as the Indian team is concerned, ICC T20 World Cup followed by their Test series in Australia are their biggest cricketing events scheduled to happen this year.
While there have already been numerous suggestions around the World Cup, CA (Cricket Australia) chief executive Kevin Roberts recently opened up on the future of both the World Cup and Australia’s Test series against India during a teleconference with Australian reporters.
“We might not generate financial returns from that event [T20 World Cup] that are as significant as the international cricket season [in Australia].
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“But what we do know is that the bigger returns from the broadcast rights around the event that are generated by the ICC are very important to all of our counterparts around the cricket world. So it’s incumbent on us to do everything possible to stage and host the T20 World Cup,” Roberts told reporters in a teleconference on Tuesday.
Cricket Australia pondering over Test series vs India
Roberts laying emphasis on broadcasting rights is a significant hint towards the possibility of the World Cup being played in empty stadiums. Much like the T20I tournament, Australia are further expected to host India for five matches which might be scheduled at the same venue and will undoubtedly be a staggering move.
Roberts also mentioned that Australia are in talks with the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) regarding adding one more Test to the five-match series to compensate or minimize losses.
Interesting that Australia and India are open to playing a five test series later this year if conditions improve. In these financially troubled times, I foresee cricket boards protecting their financial interests even if it means conflict with the ICC.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 21, 2020
“If you contemplate the prospect of the international season in particular being affected, we have an issue of hundreds of millions of dollars on our hands. So it’s very important that … we do everything possible to stage the season.
“Whether or not there’s people at the venue or not … we will explore all viable options. Fortunately we have a little bit of time to work through the different scenarios with the India series. But we’re not ruling out any possibility for that at this point in time,” Roberts said.
