Former Australia captain Allan Border says his country's cricket board must not bow down to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on the scheduling changes - the Sydney Test in particular - regarding the upcoming tour by India. The Sydney Test, usually known as the New Year's Test, begins in the first week of January but has been pushed back to January 7 in the planned schedule.
As per the schedule, yet to be ratified by the BCCI and Cricket Australia, the ODIs will be followed by three T20 internationals in Adelaide between December 4-8 and then the four-match Test series with the opener in Adelaide from December 17 instead of the traditional Brisbane.
Border is not amused by the change in schedule. “I don't think it should be a negotiated scenario,” he told Fox Sports News. “If it's necessary because of what is happening globally with the virus then fair enough, but if it's just because they want a bit of a spell off between Boxing Day and the New Year's Test match then that's rubbish.”
“We've been doing this for how many years now, back-to-back Test matches? It works a treat through that Christmas-New Year period and I wouldn't be comfortable with it moving just because India want a couple more days off,” Border said. Even broadcasters Seven West Media, the owner of Channel 7, are crying foul over the schedule that Cricket Australia has prepared.
Border added, “I think they're just playing mind games. They consider themselves the strength of world cricket, and financially that is the case so they do have a fair say in things. But if the roles were reversed, we wouldn't have much say in the itinerary, it would just be put in front of us and these are the dates that we're going to play.”
“You can negotiate as much as you like but these are traditional dates that everyone knows have been in the calendar forever, so to start negotiating now… it's a tough one. I wouldn't be bowing down to it - we've got traditional dates, let's stick with them,” he added.
Border also criticised the shifting of the Brisbane Test to the back-end. “The Brisbane Test match has traditionally been the first game for a lot of years now,” he said. “It's such a great ground, it's a pitch that we know well and play well on and it gives us a huge start to our international summer. Now obviously, India don't want to play that first game in Brisbane, but that shouldn't be the case. We should just be saying 'these are the venues and these are the dates. As far as of when games should and shouldn't be played, I don't think we should give an inch at all.”
On Tuesday, Seven West Media took Cricket Australia to arbitration, demanding a cut in annual fees, reportedly dissatisfied with the planned schedule of the India tour. According to the original schedule, the tour was to begin with T20Is in October followed by Tests from December 3 with the ODIs kept for mid-January.
However, pressed by BCCI, the Australian cricket board altered the schedule bringing both formats of white-ball cricket to the start from November-end, and forcing the Test series to begin from December 17.
The Aussie board has stuck to the changed schedule, keeping the November 25-30 slot for ODIs (in Brisbane) and December 4-10 for T20Is (in Adelaide). The Test series will likely begin on December 17 with a day-night Test at Adelaide, followed by the second Test - the Boxing Day Test - at Melbourne (December 26-30), third at Sydney (January 7-11) and the last one at Brisbane (January 15-19).
