{"id":852346,"date":"2026-08-12T07:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T07:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/852346\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T07:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T07:12:13","slug":"australia-host-bangladesh-in-darwin-and-mackay-for-first-winter-tests-in-22-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/852346\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia host Bangladesh in Darwin and Mackay for first winter Tests in 22 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Australia begin \u2060a massive year of Test cricket in unusual surrounds on Thursday, hosting Bangladesh for the first time since 2003 in a two-match series in the country\u2019s tropical north.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">With stadiums further south occupied by Australian rules football, Darwin\u2019s Marrara Oval will stage its first Test since 2004 before the Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay becomes the nation\u2019s 12th Test venue on August 22.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Unlike the festive atmosphere of an \u200cAustralian home summer, the country\u2019s first winter Tests in more than two decades will have a different feel, despite familiar heat and sunshine.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Marrara Oval holds about 15,000 spectators while the venue in Mackay, a coal and sugar port about 1,000km (about 621 miles) north of Brisbane, accommodates around 10,000.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Commercial realities and a crowded international calendar have shaped the unusual schedule.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The series was slated for March 2027 but was brought forward to accommodate Australia\u2019s 150th anniversary Test against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia begin \u2060a massive year of Test cricket in unusual surrounds on Thursday, hosting Bangladesh for the first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,13047,740,18587,5249,1208,422656,11226,18022,422657,29547,1948,701,1183,85,35235,125238],"class_list":["post-852346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bangladesh","tag-cricket","tag-cricket-australia","tag-darwin","tag-england","tag-great-barrier-reef-arena","tag-mackay","tag-melbourne-cricket-ground","tag-mirpur","tag-nathan-lyon","tag-pat-cummins","tag-queensland","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-steve-smith","tag-world-test-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852346","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=852346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}