The prospect of a five-match Test series between Australia and India is gaining traction as cricket authorities contemplate ways of making up for the lost time when the peak of the novel coronavirus gets over.
According to Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive Kevin Roberts, all options will be considered for hosting India, the sport’s major income generator, in December and January. All five games could be played at a single venue.
Australia is also pushing ahead with plans to stage the T20 World Cup, which is slated to run from October 18 to November 15.
All cricketing events are currently on hold in Australia and strict border, travel restrictions have been imposed amid the pandemic, including bans on international visitors.
BCCI reacts to CA’s proposal
“We haven’t given it a thought as yet. We have a World Cup, and Australia is in lockdown (the country has closed its borders to all foreigners for six months) until the end of September. We have to see how they go for that (T20 World Cup). Depending on that, the bilateral series will be worked out,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by Indian Express.
With cricket set to remain off the field for weeks, every board is set to incur significant losses. If the pandemic results in the T20 World Cup being suspended too, it will take away about $7-8 million from the pockets of each board.
“Whether or not there are people at the venue or not; we will explore all viable options. Fortunately, we have a little bit of time to work through the different scenarios with the India series. But we are not ruling out any possibility for that at this point in time,” Roberts said about Australia vs India Test series which could see them make up for some of the losses.
