Australia plan to have a good time the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the first-ever Take a look at match by enjoying England in a one-off match on the identical venue in March 2027.
The Melbourne Cricket Floor (MCG) performed host to a single-innings match from 15 to 19 March 1877, with Australia profitable by 45 runs, earlier than England gained the second match on the identical venue to tie the sequence 1-1.
The 100-year anniversary of the inaugural Take a look at was additionally marked with a Take a look at between Australia and England on the MCG in 1977, with Australia once more profitable by 45 runs.
Cricket Australia (CA) additionally revealed the MCG will proceed to host the standard Boxing Day Take a look at whereas the New Yr’s Take a look at will stay on the Sydney Cricket Floor – each by way of to 2030-31.
CA confirmed that the Adelaide Oval will host the December ‘Christmas Take a look at’ in both day-night or day format and the ‘West Take a look at’ in Perth, Western Australia, might be Australia’s opener for the subsequent three years.
Which means the subsequent males’s Ashes in 2025-26 will start at a venue aside from the Gabba in Brisbane for the primary time since 1982-83, and it will likely be the primary Ashes Take a look at performed at Perth’s Optus Stadium.
Later within the sequence, Brisbane is ready to host a day-nighter relatively than Adelaide, which has hosted seven of the 12 pink-ball Exams in Australia.
“The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary Take a look at match on the MCG in March 2027 might be an exquisite celebration of the head format of the sport at one of many world’s nice sporting arenas and we won’t wait to host England on that event,” mentioned CA’s chief govt Nick Hockley.
It could possibly be the most recent date in a house summer season {that a} males’s Take a look at has been staged in Australia because the 1978-79 sequence in opposition to Pakistan.
The 2026-27 season would be the first in 50 years that the Gabba is not going to host a Take a look at.
The Queensland venue has been assured video games in opposition to India and England throughout the subsequent two seasons however there’s uncertainty over its redevelopment earlier than Brisbane hosts the 2032 Olympics.
Perth’s Optus Stadium holds 60,000 and has replaced the Waca because the Western Australian capital metropolis’s premier cricket venue.
It was attributable to host its first Ashes Take a look at throughout the 2021-22 sequence however Covid-19 restrictions meant it had to be moved to Hobart, Tasmania.