{"id":385019,"date":"2026-01-01T16:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385019\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:13:13","slug":"anthony-albanese-urges-australia-and-england-to-ensure-third-day-at-scg-for-mcgrath-foundation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385019\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Albanese urges Australia and England to ensure third day at SCG for McGrath Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged Australia and England\u2019s cricketers to ensure the Sydney Test reaches a third day, joking that the McGrath Foundation is counting on it.<\/p>\n<p>Players from both sides gathered at Kirribilli House on Wednesday for the Prime Minister\u2019s annual New Year\u2019s Day reception, hosted by Albanese and his wife, Jodie Haydon.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Prime Minister Anthony Albanese takes a selfie with the Australian cricket team at Kirribilli House on Friday evening.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767283992_833_5fb623143367346343061687aaaa7e778d74078a.jpeg\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese takes a selfie with the Australian cricket team at Kirribilli House on Friday evening.Credit: Edwina Pickles<\/p>\n<p>During the 90-minute function, held in one of the city\u2019s most striking locations, players, officials and families grazed on oysters, tuna tartare and prawns, washed down with juices and sparkling water.<\/p>\n<p>Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg and chairman Mike Baird attended, while Glenn McGrath addressed the room on behalf of the McGrath Foundation. Teams posed for photos overlooking the harbour \u2013 Albanese\u2019s dog, Toto, ran away when the snaps were being taken \u2013 while some of their children entertained themselves with a game of cricket in the PM\u2019s backyard.<\/p>\n<p>Australian batsman Usman Khawaja bowled to his daughters on the back lawn ahead of what could be his final Test. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/link\/follow-20170101-p5nr48\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The veteran batsman has called a media conference<\/a> on Friday morning to address his playing future.<\/p>\n<p>With Australia leading the five-match series 3-1 after victories in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide, Albanese said he was hopeful the fifth and final Test, starting at the SCG on Sunday, would last longer than Melbourne\u2019s two-day affair.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Usman Kawaja bowls to daughters Aisha and Ayla on the lawn at Kirribilli House.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767283993_271_c49240f74ecb58a20671e2b44249e1588a3ce310.jpeg\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Usman Kawaja bowls to daughters Aisha and Ayla on the lawn at Kirribilli House.Credit: Edwina Pickles<\/p>\n<p>Day three, which doubles as Jane McGrath Day, falls on Tuesday, and remains a crucial fundraising day for the foundation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDay three in this Test is really important,\u201d Albanese said. \u201cMore than the others. So whatever you do, if things are going wrong, just get someone to play out a couple of sessions, because we do want day three. It\u2019s something very special.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged Australia and England\u2019s cricketers to ensure the Sydney Test reaches a third&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-385019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385019","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=385019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}