South Australia’s bid to steal the New Year’s Test from Sydney has been dismissed as “ridiculous” by Cricket NSW.
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas and the SA Cricket Association need Adelaide Oval to host the Test match within the first week of the New Year.
“In South Australia, we’ve got an amazing record of people turning up to sporting events,” Malinauskas informed reporters in Canberra on Friday.
“We often have bigger crowds than Sydney and that’s despite having a far smaller population.
“South Australians are enthusiastic about their sport, they love their cricket, myself included.
“So we stand ready to work with Cricket Australia to improve their product to more people around the country.”
The bid is a part of the Malinauskas authorities’s plans to lure extra sporting occasions to Adelaide, which just lately gained internet hosting rights for the AFL’s so-called collect spherical, the place all 18 golf equipment will play within the metropolis over a four-day interval in April.
That AFL spherical comes every week earlier than Adelaide phases a LIV Golf match, with the SA capital additionally internet hosting the opening match of rugby league’s State of Origin sequence this yr.
But the bid to pinch the New Year’s Test has been slammed by Cricket NSW chief government Lee Germon.
“My initial reaction was one of not believing it,” Germon informed reporters in Sydney.
“It’s a ridiculous notion that the New Year’s Test should go to Adelaide when it’s so much part of the culture … to have the New Year’s Test here in Sydney.
“We will simply be telling Cricket Australia there is not any manner the Sydney Test ought to be shifting.”
Germon said rain, which has had an impact on the Sydney Test six times in the past seven years, was no reason to switch the timing.
Sydney holds the unenviable record of having the most days washed out in Test cricket of any Australian venue, with 25 completely lost over the years.
Cricket Australia (CA) is expected to decide the scheduling of next summer’s Test matches at a board meeting next week.
The governing body’s chief executive Nick Hockley said during the most recent SCG Test match, which was heavily affected by rain, there was no push within CA to move what he described as “an iconic occasion on the sporting calendar”.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
