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Oh, not again. That was my first response on hearing Australia and Bangladesh had postponed another bilateral series, particularly as it would have been the first Test series between the two teams in Australia since 2003.
This feeling was only heightened when I read Daniel Brettig and Mohammad Isam’s article on Cricinfo that spoke of the role that commercial interest was likely to have played in the decision, as the tour was would have been a loss-maker.
For what it’s worth, I still have no sympathy on those grounds. After all, Cricket Australia just announced a record television rights deal. Despite the recent ball-tampering controversy, it can therefore be described to be in a healthy financial position.
From a cricket point of view, it also has its share of downsides.
It allows the Australian Test team no matches before what is likely to be a difficult tour of the UAE, where Michael Clarke’s team was hammered in 2014. They’ve got only those matches and the Sheffield Shield to prepare for what promises to be the strongest Indian team to be on these shores since Sourav Ganguly’s side in 2004.
Even in the absence of a World Test Championship, then, such a decision may well affect Australia, even if CA are confident that it will not. While this decision was made before Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were banned, it does exacerbate their impact.
Cameron Bancroft of Australia talks to the umpire. (AP Photo/Halden Krog)
And that’s without considering any of the broader interests of the game that would have been served from a Test tour by Bangladesh.
From Cricket Australia’s press release, however, there is another cricket consideration by which they hope to sell this decision.
“Both countries agreed to postponing that tour to be better aligned ahead of the ICC World T20 in 2020 in Australia.”
Such a focus on that event is, to an extent, understandable. Neither team have won the event before. Hosting the event also means that the result won’t be out of sight or out of mind.
Considering Australia’s attitude towards IT20s at certain stages of the sport’s history, the country’s desire to win that event is laudable.
Yet even if you set aside Test cricket from consideration on the basis that there is no World Test Championship and we shouldn’t, there is the small matter of a World Cup in 2019.
From CA’s press release, it appears neither board thought that playing a series in Australia would help in their preparation for that event. Perhaps a surprising attitude, given the homogenous conditions that tend to dominate in both England and Australia for white ball cricket, but in line with CA’s tendency to see the three formats in isolation.
One exception to that is in the broadcast rights deal, where Men’s Tests are on free-to-air and both white ball formats are on pay TV.
Which is why it would be easy to let this go by without comment for the casual fan, to pay only limited attention to the IT20 series when it is played, and why it is imperative that fans do neither of these things.
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