CA offers Gabba ‘disaster’ reprieve
The Queensland government is dragging the chain on cricket’s seven-year plan, but has been given the chance to salvage’s the state’s clouded Test match future.
Cricket Australia has decided to wait until former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk has finished his review into Olympic spending next month before it formalised its seven-year plan for international cricket in Australia.
It is understood Queensland was the final state government to submit its proposal to CA for future Test matches and it has said its aspirations were still very much up in the air depending on what Quirk recommended.
Quirk’s findings will have enormous ramifications for cricket in Queensland.
If he recommends a full $2.7bn Gabba renovation and that is taken on board then the ground is likely to be out of action for five years from 2025.
That means alternatives would have to be found for cricket and the Brisbane Lions.
There is also a strong push to do a partial, more cost effective, renovation, which would feature a new entrance at the western side of the ground that would give the venue added and essential grandeur for the 2032 Games.
The final option, which would be a disaster for the Olympics and for cricket, would be if the Gabba rebuild and renovation were canned and another venue chosen.
The fading Gabba has slipped to the No.5 Test venue in the country behind the timehonoured MCG and SCG, the magnificently renovated Adelaide Oval and the recently constructed Optus Stadium in Perth.
If there was no renovation, the Gabba would be sentenced to remain at the bottom of the pecking order, which is not the place to be given how the jostling for key Tests has become so intense.
For many years, the Gabba snared the first Test on the basis that the players wanted to play there given Australia had not lost a Test there since 1988.
But the fortress walls have fallen with this year’s loss to the West Indies being preceded by another defeat to India two years ago.
While Ricky Ponting is keen to be part of cricket’s global growth, he has suggested players should be limited to how many competitions they play to maintain the status of international clashes.
“Nothing has ever really been put in place to block these competitions happening,” said Ponting, who took up an offer to coach the Washington Freedom in this year’s US competition.
“I know certain countries have got limits on how many competitions their players can play in, and I actually think that’s not a bad model.
“That protects the country from international availability for their players and still allows individuals to go out and make money outside their international commitments.
“It is going to be the biggest challenge I think for the game, how we manage the growth of these domestic competitions and slotting them all in with international duty and even overlapping one another.
“That’s the challenge we’ve got with the BBL now with (Dubai) and South Africa happening when they do, our little window is just being gobbled up more and more.”