Australia tipped to take Tests to the tropics

The Australian Cricket Board are tipped to announce this week that they will host Tests in the northern outback cities of Darwin and Cairns next year.

Australian media reported on Tuesday the Northern Territory's capital city, Darwin, and the tropical Queensland city of Cairns would host Tests against Bangladesh next year.

ACB public affairs general manager Brendan McClements said the board had spent two years investigating using venues in the warmer climate of northern Australia in the middle of the calendar year to help ease scheduling pressures.

"If possible, we'd like to be able to play cricket in those venues," McClements told Reuters on Tuesday.

McClements said that under the International Cricket Council programme, Australia must play the other nine Test-playing nations at least once home and away over the next five years.

"To try and do that only in (the southern) summer won't work. If we are able to bring venues into play that can host matches at that (July) time of the year, logistically, it makes it a lot easier to manage our commitments under the ICC programme," McClements said.

The ACB are hoping to make an announcement on Thursday regarding the Bangladesh series.

Darwin's Football Park, with a capacity of 15,000 and a drop-in wicket prepared by Melbourne Cricket Ground curator Tony Ware, is tipped to host the first Test against Bangladesh in July next year.

The second Test would be played in Cairns at Bundaberg Rum Stadium, the Herald Sun newspaper reported in Melbourne on Tuesday.

The Northern Territory Government said Darwin would also host a test against Zimbabwe in 2004, the newspaper reported.

Mail Cricket Editor