Cricket Australia's attempt to scrap the Gabbatoir is good news for England

Australia's Cricketers, Brisbane's famous Gabbatoir, have moved one step closer to being demolished as a testing site.

In partnership with the Brisbane Lions, the 2024 AFL champions who call the Gabba home, Cricket Australia has drawn up a proposal for a new stadium in the city's Victoria Park that will host cricket and Australian rules football for the next 50 years.

The Gabba has been hosting Test matches since 1931 and the proposal is for cricket's life to end 101 years later at the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane.

The ground has become infamous and its precarious status as Australia's fifth Test venue was made clear when CA bumped it from its usual season-opening spot in favor of the new Optus Stadium in Perth. It was then given a day-night test next year As because Adelaide Oval wanted a day game in the prime slot just before Christmas. The Melbourne Cricket Ground and Sydney Cricket Ground will remain in their signature Boxing Day and New Years slots respectively.

Australia have no tests scheduled at the Gabba after next summer due to uncertainty about the future. If no testing is done in the summer of 2026-2027, a streak of 49 consecutive summers of on-the-ground testing action will be broken.

Outgoing CA CEO Nick Hockley said the Gabba is nearing the end of its life, so the cricket and AFL authorities have submitted their proposal to the Queensland Government's 100-day Olympic venue review.

The Gabba has played a pivotal role in Queensland's cricket history and was delighted with the strong ticket sales for this Test, Hockley said. The courier post. That said, it's clear that the Gabba is nearing the end of its lifespan Brisbane 2032 Games offers a unique opportunity to develop a world-class stadium that will deliver strong benefits for Queensland, providing cricket and football fans with the facilities they deserve.

Hopefully this latest review will provide the certainty that everyone wants, not least the organizers of the Games, and together with Queensland Cricket, the AFL and the Lions we will make a strong case for a new stadium to accommodate cricket and football with Australian rules. in Victoria Park into the future.

It would be great to host the Olympic cricket final at the Gabba and then move straight to a shiny new stadium where fans can enjoy international and domestic cricket in comfort for the next 50 years or more.

This would also avoid disruption and costs to fans and the sport from any move away from the Gabba between now and the Games.

The lack of clarity around elements of the Olympic and Paralympic Games infrastructure has certainly led to frustration and uncertainty for the sports played at the Gabba.

Queensland is a hugely important market for cricket, so it was a shame that we could only schedule the next two years of international cricket in Brisbane in our seven-year international schedule.

The Gabba has a capacity of just 37,000, making it the smallest of Australia's five main testing venues, and also small by AFL standards. A new stadium is also being built in Hobart, which will host a new AFL team, as well as some international cricket, in place of the landmark Bellerive Oval.

The latest chapter in one epic Australia-India series will be held this weekend at the Gabba.

England's poor record at the Gabba makes this good news

The writing is now on the wall for the Gabba and no cricket team should be more pleased than England.

The very fact that next winters Ashes series will not start on a ground that has terrorized them, felt a major boost for England's chances when that news emerged in recent months. Now it looks like their visit for the second Test next year this time will be the last time they ever have to go.

England have a truly terrible record at the Gabba. They haven't won a Test there since 1986 and it has largely been a fortress for Australia, who didn't lose to anyone in Brisbane between 1989 and 2019 (although they have since lost to both India and the West Indies).

England's Ashes horror shows easily come to mind: Nasser Hussain choosing to bowl first in 2002 (Australia reached stumps at 364 for two on day one and won by 384 runs); Steve Harmon's first ball landing wide into the hands of his captain Freddie Flintoff at second slip in 2006; In 2013, Mitchell Johnson terrorized England, with Jonathan Trott forced home due to a stress-related illness; in 2017, Jonny Bairstow was wrongly accused of punching Cameron Bancroft weeks earlier; and memorably, Rory Burns' first ball of 2021, bowled behind his legs by Mitchell Starc.

England never recovered and were beaten in each of those series. The Brisbane defeat tends to set the tone for the tourism woes.

It has been a long time since the Gabba could be considered a large area. The facilities are poor for the modern age and it is rough and ready. Remarkably, it is also small by Australian standards. It would easily have the largest capacity of any cricket venue in England, a land of grounds, not stadiums.

What it does have, however, is character and almost 100 years of cricketing history, which any slick, tidy new multi-purpose stadium in Brisbane will have no chance of replicating. That's sad, but not for England.

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