Test cricket: gone with the Windies

Wed, Jun 17, '15

Not one ticket has yet been sold to a Test match in Australia this summer. In fact, no dates have been announced — except the two that need no announcement, Boxing Day in Melbourne and the New Year match in Sydney — and no one has really noticed.

All that is known is that New Zealand will be here for three Tests in November, the shoulder season, and the West Indies for three in December and January, prime time. A month ago, that felt like the wrong way around. Now, it feels like a snub to the Kiwis and the incorporation of a month-long bye at the height of the cricket season.

Whether Australia was exceptionally good or the Windies lamentably poor in their two just completed Tests doesn't matter. It is impossible to think that their contests will be any closer here. It would be nice to believe that the West Indies could guarantee the presence of, for instance, the ever reluctant Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo, but they cannot. The Windies can't even necessarily guarantee to stay for the duration. Eight months ago, they walked out of a tour of India.