SCG Trust Chairman Tony Shepherd has spoken on Sydney’s bid for the fifth Test after the match was officially relocated away from Perth on Monday afternoon.
The final Test of the Ashes series was due to start on January 14 at Optus Stadium, however border issues left Cricket Australia with no choice but to strip the match from the Western Australia capital.
It means the fifth Test is now up for grabs, and it appears a three-horse race between Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney to take it.
Shepherd indicated what Cricket Australia will be looking for as the respective venues put forward their pitches.
“(Provide more money, bigger crowds), I think all of the above, plus the logistics of it and the security is important to Cricket Australia, the dollar are important to them, they’ve had a rough couple of years so you’ve got to keep the game going,” he told SEN’S Dwayne’s World.
“The convenience factors, the logistics of it, they’ll take all of that into account when they make a decision.”
If crowds are the biggest concern of Cricket Australia, it will likely mean Melbourne and Sydney become frontrunners to host.
Both venues are believed to be pitching a day/night Test to Cricket Australia, with regular Test matches already scheduled for both venues this summer.
Shepherd confirmed the interest in a day/night match, and despite the SCG hosting the fourth Test, he’s confident in the crowd coming back for a second game.
“We’re very confident that if we had a day/night Test in Sydney we’d get massive attendance, day/night suits the Sydney lifestyle,” he said.
“So, I think it’d be a great success.
“Our surveys of fans and members would indicate an extremely strong interest, particularly if it was a day/night Test, something different that we haven’t had in Sydney before, I think people would go for that.”
He went on to add he was confident of coming close to Melbourne’s crowd numbers, despite the SCG’s capacity some 50,000 lower than the MCG.
“We have actually matched Melbourne in crowds previously, they’ll kill us on day one obviously with the MCG, but over the five days we can usually get pretty close to matching their crowds because we just get more consistent attendance,” Shepherd continued.
“So, we think we can do pretty well on the crowd front.
“The SCG has such great historical overtones, it has a terrific atmosphere and there’s a certain magic to the SCG being such a traditional ground.”
The chairman also said Hobart would be a deserved host, having not hosted Test cricket since 2016.
The Ashes get underway in Brisbane on Wednesday morning before travelling to Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney in that order.