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WA concede Boxing Day Test won't move

3 minute read

Western Australian officials concede Cricket Australia won't be moving the Boxing Day Test from Melbourne now or any time soon, despite pitch concerns.

Western Australia cricket officials concede they won't snatch the Boxing Day Test away from Melbourne now or any time soon, despite continual concerns over the MCG pitch.

Perth's 60,000-seat Optus Stadium has been floated as a possible option for the Christmas clash, with the Western Australia Cricket Association keen on the idea.

Chairman Mike McKenna first raised the push last December, and was again vocal in his calls for Boxing Day to be moved following the MCG's pitch issues last weekend.

Adam Gilchrist poured even more fuel onto the fire this week, backing up Michael Vaughan's claims that no ground had any God-given right to host an event.

But WACA CEO Christina Matthews admitted it wasn't at all likely they would claim the rights to cricket's showpiece Test.

"They (Cricket Australia) are not looking at moving anything from Melbourne on Boxing Day," Matthews said.

"We know how sensitive Melbourne people are about the Boxing Day Test.

"We're quite happy with the schedule, we've got a big BBL game that follows the day in Melbourne."

Gilchrist meanwhile would like to see Boxing Day played on Perth's drop-in wicket, be it at Optus Stadium or the MCG.

"The romantic, the historian in me would love to see it stay at that iconic venue," Gilchrist said.

"There's an obligation to maintain wickets and ... this hasn't snuck up on anyone, the Boxing Day Test and the fact these wickets are clearly starting to struggle.

"There's no God-given right. It would be a shame to see it leave there. But if they can't produce it, other options probably should be taken into account.

"Could you take one of these (Optus Stadium drop-ins) ones over there? Why couldn't you? Stick them on a truck couldn't you?"

Not that it's likely any time soon, given it took five hours to move the Optus Stadium drop-in wickets across the river from the WACA two seasons ago.

"You'd need a pretty handy truck. If they were in two pieces you could potentially do it. But not it one piece," Optus Stadium curator Brett Sipthorpe said.

"And the time it was on the road, the amount of drying that would happen while exposed, you'd need a week or two on it before you could play on it."

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