Excitement for the NRMA Insurance West Test, the jewel in the crown of Western Australia\u2019s blockbuster international summer of cricket schedule, is continuing to build, with today marking 100 days until the commencement of the match between two of cricket\u2019s traditional rivals.<\/p>\n
For the first time in seven years, New Zealand\u2019s men\u2019s team returns to Perth to take on Australia in the opening match of the NRMA Insurance Test series.<\/p>\n
As was the case in that 2019-20 series, Perth plays host to the opener, before the series moves to Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.<\/p>\n
The West Test forms part of an international season like no other, which builds to a historic climax with the 150th\u00a0Anniversary Test Match at the MCG celebrating cricket\u2019s most storied rivalry, the enduring popularity of Test Cricket and the superstars from all nations who have elevated the game.<\/p>\n
Star allrounder Cooper Connolly, who will be out to join fellow WA players Josh Inglis and Cameron Green in the mix for a spot in Australia\u2019s Test squad, said he hoped to produce a strong first half of the summer at state level.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a goal to be back in that Test squad,\u201d Connolly told reporters earlier today.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a few steps to take before then and I\u2019ll concentrate on playing some good cricket for WA.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about knocking down the door with runs in Shield cricket.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019d be an honour to play Test cricket for Australia in front of my home crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Connolly could also feature in the Australian One-Day team that takes on England in the first of three 50-over matches at Perth Stadium on Friday 13 November.<\/p>\n
This morning also marked the launch of Cricket Australia\u2019s 2026 Play Cricket Week, which encourages young players across the country with all levels of experience and ability to sign up and play during the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n
After a record-breaking summer for kids\u2019 participation which saw more than 150,000 5-12-year-olds registered, season 2026-27 provides even more opportunities for kids to participate in Woolworth Cricket Blast, Junior Cricket and Smash Series Cricket.<\/p>\n
Join your local club today, head to playcricket.com.au now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Excitement for the NRMA Insurance West Test, the jewel in the crown of Western Australia\u2019s blockbuster international summer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85,83],"class_list":["post-874870","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\/874870","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=874870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}