Cricket Australia reveals the reason why Perth missed out on a Test match for upcoming India series

Cricket Australia announced the schedule for the much-awaited India’s tour to Australia. They picked Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney as the designated venues for the high profile series. However, they didn’t consider Perth as one of the venues for the same. The cricketing fraternity was amazed at why CA took such a drastic step. Now, they have come up with the clarification over the same.

Earlier there were rife speculations that India’s tour to Australia will be postponed amid the COVID-19 outbreak. But, CA came out with good news for the ardent cricket followers by announcing the schedule for the Test and ODI series on Thursday. As per the schedule, Men in Blue will begin their tour with the longer format series that will begin on December 3 in Brisbane followed by the games in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.

CA Chief reveals the reason why Perth missed out

Interestingly, Perth that hosted India in the second Test on their last visit to Australia missed out on being one of the venues. Now, Kevin Roberts, CA chief has said that if they had picked Perth, then it meant that the venue would have hosted a total of four high profile Tests (2 England & 2 India) in their eight-year cycle and Brisbane would have hosted only two. This is why Gabba was given preference. He added that it would have imbalanced their cycle of the Future Tours Programme.

“If Perth received the India Test (this year) it would mean that Perth would have hosted two England Tests and two India Tests over the eight-year cycle for a total of four … whereas Brisbane would have only hosted two. So that would have created an imbalance over the cycle of the Future Tours Programme.”

“The more balanced solution was to play the India Test in Brisbane, meaning over the eight-year cycle it would see Perth hosting three Tests against India and England and Brisbane also hosting three Tests against India and England,” Roberts said as quoted by Cricket Australia.

The 47-year-old also recited that the board felt that it will be better to host one of the games in Queensland. So that they might be able to attract a good crowd if the games are not be played behind the closed doors.

“And in the national interest and ensuring we take high-profile Test matches to cricket fans in Queensland, it was a more well-balanced solution. Assuming, of course, that we could get full crowds in play, that’s when this schedule was determined.