TOURISTS’ CONCERNS JUSTIFIED
JUST because India are the big boys of world cricket does not mean they are always the bad boys as well.
In Australia the public impression of the Indian team threatening not to go to Brisbane for the last Test is that this is a case of the world’s most powerful cricket nation throwing its weight around. That’s completely true … but it does not mean its concerns are unjustified.
Australia must take its share of responsibility for the stand-off over the team’s unwillingness to go to Brisbane. When the decision was made to push ahead with finishing the series with a Sydney-Brisbane double it was obvious one stray banana peel could cause a major stumble.
Once you entered COVID challenged Sydney the whole suffocating quarantine net was going to be ultra-tight in Sydney and Brisbane.
All the anguish of the Gabba Test quarantine could have been avoided with a simple schedule swap of playing the third Test in Brisbane and then finishing in Sydney. Or even playing a second Test in Melbourne.
Brisbane officials such as Queensland Cricket board member and Test great Ian Healy were cheering strongly for Brisbane and Sydney to swap Tests, figuring it would enable the Indians to go from Melbourne to Brisbane under relatively relaxed conditions before playing under more stringent ones in Sydney.
Most of the Indian squad have been in a bubble of some sort since mid-August and are deeply concerned by suggestions they would be confined to their rooms when not playing or training in Brisbane, especially after being guaranteed the only hard quarantine they would be subjected to was the first two weeks of the tour.
For all of the talk of “they get paid a million bucks … just play’’ the bubble life is starting to deeply grind on players’ mental health.
Cricket Australia has told the Indians they will not be room-bound at the team hotel in Brisbane and will be permitted to mix in groups.
But it is understood they want official, in-writing confirmation from the Queensland government.
Maybe it is true that part of the reason India don’t want to go to Brisbane is that they never win there.
The unfortunate thing for Australia is they gave India an opportunity to get all grumpy about going to a venue they were never keen to visit in the first place.