Talk of Brisbane boycott lingering
Stand-off must be resolved
INDIA’S whispering campaign to boycott the Brisbane Test has reached flashpoint, with SCG groundsmen needing to know today if they’re required to save the $300 million series.
Cricket Australia yesterday held productive crisis talks with their BCCI counterparts and remain confident that the mysterious threats to blow up the tour coming from within the Indian camp are not necessarily going to be backed by the big bosses.
It’s understood, India has concerns that Queensland might pull the rug from underneath them and force them into a more stringent hotel lockdown than what they signed off on last week.
The Indians don’t want to walk into an environment where police are roaming the hotel and worry Queensland could change their minds as they did back in November when they refused to allow the Indians to quarantine.
However, CA interim chief executive Nick Hockley, pictured, has reassured them that Queensland Health has signed off on the protocols and players will be free to roam around the quarantine hotel as promised – without a police presence inside the hotel – and will not be confined to their rooms.
Until BCCI heavies in Mumbai can guarantee to CA bosses they will not backflip, the Gabba Test remains shrouded in doubt.
CA say the talks appear positive but they need a line to be drawn under the ongoing saga as a matter of urgency and for the rumblings to be put to bed once and for all.
Reports out of India have even suggested one extreme option could be to refuse to play a fourth Test altogether and sensationally fly home. But even if that seems unrealistic, the series is still balancing on a knife’s edge. Time is running out for Sydney officials to prepare an emergency back-up pitch should a Gabba boycott become official.
SCG curator Adam Lewis told News Corp on Sunday he could get a second wicket up by rejuvenating a strip used for a tour game against the Indians last month.
But on match-eve Lewis said he was no longer working on the possibility of a second deck – and it’s understood the SCG would now need to know today if they are being relied upon to produce a rescue surface of Test match quality.
Australian captain Tim Paine perhaps best summed up the ominous feel about the stand-off, when he declared on Wednesday that where there’s smoke, there is usually fire with the all-powerful BCCI.
India has the money and clout to hold other countries to ransom, but it would be an extraordinary power play to refuse to travel to Queensland when the quarantine conditions being proposed are no different to what the team is currently living under at their hotel in Sydney and they would only have two and a half days in the state anyway before the last Test begins.
The only difference is Queensland’s bubble conditions are government enforced, and Indian sources say the team wants guarantees they won’t be confined to their hotel when in Brisbane.