CA to make call on which Northern Territory and Far North Queensland venues will host Bangladesh Tests<\/p>\n
Darwin is in the box seat to host its first Test in 22 years with Cricket Australia keen to split next year’s Bangladesh tour between the Territory and North Queensland.<\/p>\n
Players are understood to have been impressed with international cricket’s return to Darwin this month, as part of the white-ball series against South Africa.<\/p>\n
More winter internationals are scheduled for next year with Australia set to host a two-Test series against Bangladesh in the top end.<\/p>\n
Mackay, Cairns, Townsville and Darwin all loom as options to host, which would double as the first winter Tests in Australia since 2004.<\/p>\n
But Darwin appears the most likely to secure one of those Tests with Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg keen to spread the series across more than one state.<\/p>\n
Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne played in Darwin’s most recent Test in 2004 \/\/ Getty<\/p>\n
“Ideally (we will),” Greenberg said. “We want to make sure we continue to play cricket in lots of different locations, so the next generation of kids can see their stars.<\/p>\n
“I spent some time with the Chief Minister there and they’ve got a strong appetite for more cricket, as have we, to play more cricket there.<\/p>\n
“The conditions up there are amazing when you take out the biggest variable we have in cricket, which is weather, and you have nothing to worry about.”<\/p>\n
Darwin last hosted Tests against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in 2003 and 2004 respectively, before largely falling off the cricket calendar for the past two decades.<\/p>\n
Australia A played out two draws in unofficial Tests against Sri Lanka A in the city in July, before this month’s T20s against South Africa at TIO Stadium.<\/p>\n
Mackay looms as the more modern regional venue in Queensland with the Great Barrier Reef Arena upgraded in 2023 and having hosted regular WBBL matches.<\/p>\n
South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj in Mackay this year \/\/ Getty<\/p>\n
Players were also buoyed by the wickets in the T20 and ODI against South Africa there this month, which doubled as Australia’s first men’s internationals there.<\/p>\n
A Test would be the first in Mackay’s history with Cairns having previously hosted two in the early 2000s before last week’s ODIs in the northernmost city.<\/p>\n
Townsville is the other option after hosting ODIs in 2022, but issues such as lighting have seen it drop behind Cairns and Mackay as an option in recent years.<\/p>\n
A match at any Queensland venue would also count as the state’s Test for the 2026-27 summer, given the Gabba has missed out on a red-ball match with the touring New Zealand.<\/p>\n
CA is open to the idea of more winter internationals in the top end, as a way of extending the season and easing the load on the main part of the summer.<\/p>\n
“We had such good support (in the white-ball games), we were sold out in almost every stadium we played in,” Greenberg said.<\/p>\n
“Playing on each of the shoulder parts of the season (works).<\/p>\n
“Our Australian women’s team will play a Test match in mid-March in Perth this year. International cricket is played 12 months of the year.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CA to make call on which Northern Territory and Far North Queensland venues will host Bangladesh Tests Darwin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85,83],"class_list":["post-105548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}