Western Australia Sports Minister Tony Buti remains adamant his state should be hosting the fifth Ashes Test next month after Cricket Australia (CA) announced earlier this week that Perth had been scrapped from the calendar. Hobart and Melbourne are considered the frontrunners to host the final Test of the five-match series between Australia and England now Perth has officially been stripped of the game, while Sydney has also thrown its hat in the ring.
Cricket fans mocked Dr Buti for suggesting on the weekend WA should host the second Test in a swap with Adelaide, but he was sticking to his guns after CA confirmed there’d be no international five-day fixture in Perth for a second straight summer because of the state’s harsh border restrictions and biosecurity rules. WA Premier Mark McGowan said last week players, support staff and broadcast personnel flying into Perth after the fourth Test at the SCG would have to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival — effectively ruling the city out of contention.
But Dr Buti thinks CA made the wrong call, saying he was “very disappointed” with the final decision.
Dr. Buti Stated at the press conference that “There were enough technical people in Western Australia that could’ve helped with the broadcasting of a fifth Test in Perth, plus some of that could also be done by remote control, We don’t believe it was not possible to hold the fifth Test in Perth but not to compromise safety in order for broadcasters to be here. Our rules are our rules and we will not compromise that.”
Dr Buti also suggested the England camp was opposed to biosecurity restrictions that would have been enforced if players were flying from Sydney into WA.
“One of our demands was that the players, while they’re in Sydney, didn’t go out socialising at restaurants and so forth and basically remained in a bubble … I think there was some concern about that from the English players,” he said.
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall hit out at WA after the state’s push to swap the second and fifth Tests, as any notion of a trade was flatly rejected. “They’ve been trying to nick our cricket Test, well they’re not going to get the second Test, it’s going to be at the very best oval in the entire world and I’m looking forward to it, Western Australia made themselves the 12th man, now they’re complaining about not being able to get onto the oval. The reality is we are keeping the second Test here in Adelaide.”
Responding to Mr Marshall’s swipe, Dr Buti said: “The Premier of South Australia can speak for himself. He has enough issues to deal with. All I would like to say is that the AFL grand final came here. We didn’t pay for it. It wasn’t able to go to Adelaide. We believe that it was an appropriate request and offered to move the second Test from Adelaide to Perth. We weren’t actually taking the Test away from South Australia, we were just asking for the second and fifth Tests to be changed.”
