Travis Head appealed to SA premier to keep pink-ball Test in Adelaide

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Travis Head is so adamant that the day/night Test should be in Adelaide every year and not moved to Brisbane that he took up the matter with South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas.

Since his remarkable 123 from 83 balls in the first Ashes Test in Perth, Head has been near enough to deified in SA, with talk of a statue at Adelaide Oval and even renaming the ground after him. But he did not get his way when it came to the Test schedule for this season.

Brisbane hosted a day game last summer against India that was played as the third Test of the series, before it swapped places with Adelaide for the Ashes.

Following Mitchell Starc’s declaration in Perth that Australia’s players preferred to start home summers at the Gabba rather than Optus Stadium, this masthead can reveal that Head and the team have held similar misgivings about moving the pink-ball Test around the country.

Head has confirmed to this masthead that he broached the matter with Malinauskas. The Premier’s office was contacted for comment.

In 2023, when Cricket Australia secured long-term deals for Tests to be played in fixed slots in Adelaide (pre-Christmas), Melbourne and Sydney, the negotiations around the Adelaide Oval match took place over the objections of the players.

The South Australian Cricket Association, which alongside Malinauskas had previously made an ambit claim to steal the New Year’s Test from the SCG, was seeking a fixed calendar window for its Test match, partly so that the association’s 34,000-odd members could plan with more certainty.

The pre-Christmas slot was favoured because it is the only one outside Boxing Day and New Year that is guaranteed every summer. This much was made clear by the fact that in 2027-28, Adelaide will host the first Test of the season in that window because Pakistan won’t arrive here until December, and two Tests against Sri Lanka will be played in the new year.

But the timeslot also means that the Test match will often be played as a day match because mid-December is still the preferred starting time for the Twenty20 Big Bash League – after stumps, the white-ball tournament takes over prime time TV.

Rights agreements between CA and its broadcast partners Foxtel and Seven stipulate that there must be at least one Test match played in prime time on the eastern seaboard before Christmas each year, meaning that Adelaide will still have some pink-ball matches under the current, seven-year deal.

Travis Head raises his bat after his stunning knock in Perth.

In the future, the BBL window may move to a Christmas Day start, as has been mooted in the context of CA’s talks about selling stakes in the eight clubs to private investors. But for now, the BBL is still locked to start in mid-December.

An Adelaide Test with a red ball and an early evening finish time is a delight for traditionalists and arguably also for broadcasters: the most picturesque ground in world cricket will likely host matches that stretch further into days four and five when the capricious pink ball is absent.

Head, however, has taken a very different view, aligning with the majority of the Australian team’s players and staff. Adelaide curator Damian Hough, in their opinion, has created by far the best and most consistent environment for pink ball matches since hosting the inaugural day/night Test between Australia and New Zealand a decade ago.

“I’ve played a lot more in Adelaide,” Head said in Brisbane on Sunday. “I think the wicket’s slightly different as well. I think the balls probably react a bit differently here compared to the wicket at Adelaide.

“We’ve embraced it, we’ve been able to put out a good product, we’ve been able to play really, really well with it.

“It’s great spectacle, we’re going to have huge crowds again. If you win you think it’s great, if you lose, maybe not. I think it’s great for the game. If you do get down to Adelaide, get down there because it’s a bloody great week.”

With a pitch that is hard but evenly grassed, a pristine outfield and a drier southern climate, Adelaide has offered a balance between bat and ball to allow for runs to be scored in between the occasional rush of wickets.

Head’s own record in Adelaide day/night Tests is formidable. From five games he has 429 runs at 85.8 and a strike rate of 86.31 with two centuries.

Travis Head smacks the pink ball in Adelaide.

By contrast, Brisbane has been much more of a mixed bag. The first pink-ball game there, in 2016 against Pakistan, turned into a batathon when the ball went soft, as Australia narrowly avoided conceding a huge fourth innings chase to an inspired Asad Shafiq.

The 2019 Test against Sri Lanka lasted little more than two days, and in 2024 Shamar Joseph delivered a remarkable victory for the West Indies when Australia crumbled. Head went down with COVID-19 leading into that game and made a pair.

Adelaide has enjoyed an events-based resurgence in recent years, of which the Test match is a jewel in the Croweater crown. But it is still a small enough town for Head and Malinauskas to speak every now and then. They share a love of Port Adelaide football club, but were on opposite sides of the debate about when the Test should be played.

England’s Joe Root, meanwhile, said he did not think a pink-ball Test was essential to an Ashes series but understood its attraction in Australia.

“I personally don’t think so,” Root said. “But it does add things. It’s obviously very successful and very popular here and obviously Australia’s got a very good record as well. I can see why we’re playing one of these games.

“Ultimately, you know from two years out it is going to be there. A series like this, does it need it? I don’t think so, but doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be one.”