{"id":531435,"date":"2026-03-10T17:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T17:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/531435\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T17:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T17:06:15","slug":"king-charles-on-the-invite-list-for-test-crickets-mcg-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/531435\/","title":{"rendered":"King Charles on the invite list for Test cricket\u2019s MCG celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greenberg is pitching it as a carnival of cricket and entertainment beyond comparison, with events being planned alongside the Test, including corporate functions, music concerts, live sites and activations, sports conferences, and, potentially, the ICC\u2019s annual board meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the week prior will be an enormous celebration of cricket in this country \u2026 I think there\u2019s a great opportunity for cricket to be up in lights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Almost 50 years on, the Centenary Test still stands as one of the most drama-filled<\/a> and memorable games played at the MCG. More than 200 Test players from Australia and England were witness to starring performances by Australians Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh and debutant David Hookes. But England\u2019s Derek Randall was adjudged player of the match for making 174 in the fourth innings.<\/p>\n

Not only did that innings ensure a close result \u2013 Australia won by 45 runs, coincidentally the exact margin they won the first Test by at the MCG in 1877 \u2013 it also helped the game stretch past the Queen\u2019s scheduled visit at tea on day five.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve extended [an invitation] through all the appropriate channels, both government here and in the UK, for the King or a subset to be here. That\u2019s certainly high on our list,\u201d Greenberg said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might bring his visit slightly earlier in the Test match, as opposed to the end of day five, given modern-day Test matches may not get that far \u2026 we\u2019ll make sure a royal visit is there for opening ball on day one, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cricket<\/p>\n

Cricket Australia boss Todd Greenberg outside the MCG, where the 150th anniversary Test will be played a year from now.Credit: Arsineh Houspian<\/p>\n

Greenberg said two years of talks and planning had already been devoted the royal visit, but it was yet to be confirmed. Likewise, CA has been negotiating with the Marylebone Cricket Club to bring the original Ashes urn \u2013 first presented to the MCC in 1882 \u2013 to Australia for the match, even though it technically will not count as an Ashes contest.<\/p>\n

Reports from the UK suggest the MCG match could be the last Test between Australia and England played at night for the foreseeable future because England do not enjoy the format.<\/p>\n

But Greenberg says a night Test is still a live option for the 2029 Ashes series in Australia, noting the time zone is beneficial for UK broadcasters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t had a conversation with my counterparts in the ECB, we\u2019ll be doing everything we can to work with them prior to 2029, so we\u2019ve got a bit of time to solve that one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A hot air balloon floats above the MCG on Tuesday to promote the 150th anniversary Test match between Australia and England that will start at the ground one year and one day later.Credit: PICTURE THIS \/ Guillaume Yaba<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see pink ball Tests being a key feature of our summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not suggesting we play every Test match as a pink-ball Test. At the moment, it\u2019s one in five, and I think that balance is pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Remaining public tickets for days three and four of the 150th celebration Test go on sale through Ticketek at 10am (AEDT) Wednesday.<\/p>\n

MCC and AFL members are yet to learn how they will get access to buy tickets.<\/p>\n

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greenberg is pitching it as a carnival of cricket and entertainment beyond comparison, with events being planned alongside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-531435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531435","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=531435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}