Australian cricket great Adam Gilchrist has admitted he is frustrated with Cricket Australia and their handling of the upcoming summer.
We are yet to have a schedule locked in for the Test series against India, with New South Wales now looming as the host of the start of the series, after the Queensland government held firm on quarantine restrictions for the travelling party.
Gilchrist cannot understand how we don’t yet have anything in concrete.
“Those two footy codes, how they were able to be so nimble and do their schedule on the run,” he told SEN 1170's Mornings with Matty White.
“I’m very surprised that cricket hasn’t been able to lock something down two or three months ago and allow everyone some certainty on what’s going to happen and if that meant they locked down Adelaide.
“I just would’ve thought whether it was Adelaide or Perth and riding out the two weeks quarantine and then having a two month hub in Perth, it would just provide certainty for people involved and all the stakeholders.
“People can work out if they can go to the games. If they’re in Adelaide, can they travel. Sponsors, broadcasters, the most important commercial partnership that any sporting body has is with their broadcaster.
“The uncertainty that all of this has created for the broadcaster and everyone can see what’s been played out and how frustrated Channel 7 has become and it’s turned into an ugly spat.
“Cricket seems to be continually finding themselves in these situations, I don’t know if it’s a lack of leadership or direction, but there’s a lot of uncertainty around.
“If they did lock down say Adelaide for the first six white ball games and the first test and said ‘that’s where we’re playing them’ … if that meant a state misses out on international cricket this year, that’s just bad luck. We’ve all got to be understanding in this unique time. You can’t please everybody and I get the feeling they’ve hedged their bets a bit to try and satisfy everyone and it’s created a lot of uncertainty.”