Will Gabba go the Perth way?
Hindustan TimesKolkata: Australians have loved giving a hostile reception to visiting cricket teams at the Gabba. That might change as the Gabba is set to miss out on an annual Test, for the first time in 50 years, after Cricket Australia signed only a two-year hosting agreement with the Queensland government. At a time when most Australian cricket venues have secured seven-year contracts, this short deal doesn’t bode well for the Gabba, which is anyway expected to be renovated after 2030. The Gabba – it hosts rugby as well as Aussie rules football – is owned and run by the Queensland government, MCG through the Victoria government-run MCG Trust, and SCG by Venues NSW, another state-owned agency. Constantly renovated since 1993, Gabba too was unrecognisable from the ground that had hosted cricket’s first tied Test in 1960.