Australia Tour Schedule Not Final, States BCCI After CA Releases Schedule

Just hours after Cricket Australia announced the schedule for their home series against India, BCCI has made it clear that the tour will depend primarily on the COVID-19 situation. On Thursday, the Australian cricket board released the dates for India’s T20I, Test and ODI series Down Under.

The release stated that the three T20Is will take place between October 11 and 17. On the other hand, the four-match Test series will start on December 3, followed by three ODIs from January 12. The dates have been clearly planned keeping in mind the T20 World Cup scheduled to begin later in October.

With the ICC Board putting on hold a decision on the T20 World Cup taking place this year, dates of the T20 leg of India’s tour of Australia hang in the balance. But amidst all these, the BCCI has stated that there is still no confirmation over the tour going ahead as scheduled. The board also stated that it would have discussions with its Australian counterpart regarding the logistics and number of venues before finalising the itinerary.

“The itinerary released today follows the eight-year FTP drawn earlier. It had already been planned. If the ICC doesn’t want to hold the T20 World Cup this year, what will be the point in going to Australia in October, coming back and going again,” BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal was quoted as saying by Indian Express.

“This is what they have planned. Being the host country, they have to finalise this so that broadcasters and others can also make their plans. But the series is four-five months away. We have a tour of Sri Lanka also (in July), according to the FTP. If it is safe for players to travel, we will have these series. Nothing has been cancelled as of now,” he added.

Even though CA has named Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney as the four Test venues with Melbourne marked for the Boxing Day Test, this is subject to the situation permitting matches in multiple venues. Earlier, the boards had spoken about the possibility of having all the matches in one or two places.

“This will depend on the guidelines put in place by local authorities. The boards will have discussions based on those. If circumstances demand that we play in one venue, we have to do that. If it is safe to travel to all the places and play in different venues, we will do accordingly,” said Dhumal.

India in Australia (schedule subject to change)

Men:

T20Is: Oct 11 Brisbane. Oct 14 Canberra. 17 Adelaide.
Tests: Dec 3-7 Brisbane. Dec 11-15: Adelaide. Dec 26-30 Melbourne. Jan 3-7 Sydney.
ODIs: Jan 12 Perth. Jan 15 Melbourne. Jan 17 Sydney.

Women:

ODIs: Jan 22 Canberra. Jan 25 Melbourne (Junction Oval). Jan 28 Hobart (Blundstone Arena).

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