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Cricket Australia is expected to lock Hobart in as the host city for the fifth men's Ashes Test, with Shane Warne firm in his view it is the wrong call.
Shane Warne has branded Cricket Australia's imminent decision to bring the men's Ashes to Hobart as "very strange".
An announcement on a venue for the fifth Test, slated to begin on January 14, is expected this weekend.
CA gave up hope of a Perth finale at the start of this week, hitting a brick wall in talks with Western Australia officials as it tried to negotiate border exemptions.
The governing body is believed to be favouring a pink-ball match at Bellerive, which hasn't hosted a Test since 2016.
It would also mark Hobart's first ever Ashes Test.
Cricket Tasmania and the Tasmania's government have put together a bid that is set to trump the case for staging two Tests at the MCG or SCG, with the latter tipping in extra funding to try to reduce the obvious revenue gap.
It is hard to envisage CA attracting bumper crowds in Melbourne for the final Test, which would have overlapped with the start of the Australian Open.
But the MCG attendance would have been higher than that at Bellerive, where the record crowd for a day of Test cricket is 12,254.
Tasmania premier Peter Gutwein has indicated the coronavirus-safe capacity for each day of the mooted Ashes Test in his home state will be 14,000.
Warne believes those sort of numbers simply aren't befitting the sport's showpiece Test series.
"It just makes this decision ... very strange," the legendary legspinner and proud Victorian said on Fox Sports.
"I'm happy for the people of Hobart ... I just wouldn't have done it that way.
"If it's 2-2, 2-1, 1-0, you want to be fair to all the fans all over Australia and international fans.
"You can't fit them all in at Hobart.
"I would have liked for us to cater for everyone.
"One of the reasons Hobart lost their Test was that nobody was turning up. So let's hope people will turn out."
Broadcasters, having been given another day-night Test to satisfy their hunger for more prime-time fodder, were believed to be in favour of taking another Test to the MCG or SCG.
Players made it clear to CA they wanted the pitch to be the top priority when it came to pick a venue, especially given the game will be under lights.
"At times in Sheffield Shield cricket, if the wicket is not quite right (at grounds outside Adelaide Oval) then you can see some long, slow pink-ball matches," captain Pat Cummins said on the eve of the series opener.
