Following the success of the memorable T20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan played in October, the Melbourne Cricket Club, which manages the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), and the Victorian government have made tentative approaches to Cricket Australia about staging a Test match between Pakistan and India in Melbourne.
On the fourth day of the second Test between Australia and South Africa, MCC CEO Stuart Fox disclosed during a conversation on SEN radio that the club and the Victoria government had contacted CA about hosting a neutral Test.
Since 2013, India and Pakistan haven’t faced off in a bilateral international cricket match outside of World Cups and the Asia Cup. Neither team has faced off in a Test match since 2007.
Fox said that the MCC would be thrilled to host the two nations for a Test match after 90,293 spectators crammed into the MCG to watch the T20 World Cup’s thrilling last-ball match in November.
“Absolutely. Three [Tests] in a row would be lovely at the MCG. You’d fill it every time. We have asked,” Fox was quoted as saying by ESPNCricInfo. “We’ve taken that up with Cricket Australia. I know the [Victoria] government has as well. Again, it’s enormously complicated from what I can understand, amongst a really busy schedule. So I think that’s probably the greater challenge.
“Wouldn’t it be great that it wasn’t just Australia-centric and Victoria-centric, that we’re catering for all the countries and filling the stadium all the time. So we have asked.
He said that he was hoping Cricket Australia would keep pushing ICC for the Pak vs Ind face-off to fill the unoccupied stadiums and enjoy the atmosphere that the match brings.
The Future Tours Program currently does not have any bilateral cricket matches between India and Pakistan scheduled between 2023 and 2027. There are still issues over the two teams visiting each other’s countries for the 2023 Asia Cup and ODI World Cup.
A CA representative told ESPNcricinfo that the BCCI and PCB alone would decide whether to hold a neutral Test or Test series between India and Pakistan, but added that CA would be interested in hosting a neutral game at a location in Australia if the two boards ever came to an understanding.
“It would be up to the two countries to agree,” the spokesperson said. “But if there was to be a Test between India and Pakistan on neutral territory, we would of course be interested in the opportunity to host it in Australia,” he added, praising the supporters of the two teams who showed up for the World Cup.
The Boxing Day Test between Pakistan and Australia is scheduled to take place at the MCG in 2023 as part of a three-match series during the following World Test Championship cycle. Fox hoped that the T20 World Cup games against India and the final against England, which both drew more than 80,000 spectators, with the majority of them Pakistan supporters, would bring a similar number of Pakistan fans to the MCG.
“I’ve never seen anything like it at the MCG, that India-Pakistan game was something else,” Fox remarked.
