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Australia-England commemorative Test in India? CA boss Todd Greenberg is open to the lucrative idea
India could host the historic Test in March next year, celebrating 150 years of the Ashes rivalry between Australia and England.
Next year in March, Australia and England are playing a Test match to celebrate 150 years of their Ashes rivalry. As far as Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg is concerned, he is open to hosting the contest in India, the biggest cricket market in the world.
This December, the Big Bash League (BBL) is also coming to India, and Chennai will host a game between Melbourne Renegades and Perth Scorchers. Along similar lines, the historic Test match could also be brought to India, where cricket and cricketers are worshipped. Plus there is a lot of money to pocket. Clearly, Cricket Australia understands how important the Indian market is going to be for them in the near future.
How important India is to world cricket can be gauged from the fact that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) expects to make big profits from the 8 white-ball matches it hosted against India recently. They won six of those contests. It won’t be the same next year in terms of profits, despite the fact that they will be hosting two Ashes series, across men’s and women's.
"We'd have to be open to consider all options," Greenberg told the BBC's Stumped podcast. "Our relationship with the ECB, but also the BCCI, is very strong. And clearly, there are opportunities in India to put more content into certain areas. That's not something we are currently planning, but it would certainly be open for consideration," he added.
But the big difficulty!
Greenberg, however, admitted that to pull off a five-day game in India won’t be easy. Because there is already too much cricket happening in the country. India hosts the high-profile Indian Premier League, which is expected to start a bit earlier than expected next year to avoid the hot conditions of late May. So, finding the right slot is a challenge. But the Aussie is hopeful.
"I think Test cricket between us, England and India, is still very strong, probably bucking the trend as to other parts of the world. So we want to make sure we continue to grow it and strengthen it.
"The challenge for all of us in global cricket is there are only 365 days in a schedule, and we probably need another month or two if we actually can generate the content we want to," he said.
