Australia planning to give a great send-off to Virat & Rohit in ODIs later this year: CA CEO

New Delhi, June 3 (IANS) Todd Greenberg, the Cricket Australia (CA) CEO, said he hopes to give a memorable send-off to Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli should the duo play in Australia one last time later this year. With Rohit and Kohli retiring from Tests and T20Is in the last 12 months, it means they will now be playing only ODIs for India.

India are slated to tour Australia for three ODIs in Perth, Adelaide and Sydney from October 19-25 and is followed by five T20Is happening from October 29 to November 8. In an Australian home summer headlined by the five-match Ashes, the Indian interest looms large with the women’s team also slated to tour the country for a multi-format series after WPL 2026 is over.

“It's a massive summer of cricket highlighted by both the Indian women's and men's teams. Also the Ashes is here, and for the first time in nearly two decades, Australian cricket will be playing international matches in every single capital city and territory across the entire country, which is amazing when you think about the logistical exercise that goes with that.”

“But to answer the question, look, there's a lot of work in bespoke marketing plans for every game in every city. Some of those will be nuanced to local markets, whether we're playing, like in far North Queensland when South Africa are here or in our big cities when both Indian men's and women's are here. So a lot of work going into that,” said Greenberg, while replying to a query from IANS, in a virtual interaction on Tuesday.

With CA announcing that it has officially recorded its highest individual day of ticket sales when it opened up its priority pre-sale window on Tuesday, one will surely expect the fans in Australia and the overseas spectators to get their money’s worth when the dual India tours and the Ashes take place, especially on the back of attendance and ticket sales touching new heights in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

“I think we saw real momentum last year on the back of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series - some record-breaking numbers on ticket sales. I anticipate that we'll see a number of sellouts across the summer, really starting in August, and going through to March. So this may be a summer like we've never seen before with the amount of content that we have.”

“If you think about the quality of the players that will be coming, particularly from India, this might be the last time that we get to see Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma play in our country. If that is the case, but who knows, it might not be. But if it is, we want to make sure we give them a great send-off, which is a reflection of the incredible contribution they've made to international cricket,” added Greenberg, who previously served as the chief of the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA).

Aside from the excitement generated by another big home summer, Australia are also going big on the ‘A’ teams programme. Last year, it hosted the India women’s ‘A’ team for a multi-format series in Queensland. This time, the Sri Lanka men’s ‘A’ team will be in Australia for three 50-over games and two red-ball matches in July.

Australia ‘A’ team is also coming to India in September for two multi-day games and three limited-overs matches in Kanpur and Lucknow respectively. The revival of ‘A’ tours programme, after being halted for a while due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is also high on Greenberg’s agenda, despite a crammed international schedule.

“It's hard to find the balance because the A tours are very important. Everybody saw the way that our Australian men's team played in Sri Lanka earlier this year when we won that series. But what people don't see is the amount of time that a lot of our players have spent playing there, touring there in A series games and others in order to then get their opportunity to succeed at the highest level.”

“So the A series games are a very important part of the development of our players in long-term play. It's a significant investment from countries to play A series cricket because ultimately you're not generating the revenues like you would in normal Test cricket.”

“But they are very important, and I get a sense that we'll continue to talk to our counterparts in other countries about how we find meaningful parts of the schedule to put those players and give them chances to play in different conditions and particularly younger players who will come through our systems.”

“We want to make sure they've had opportunities to play in the subcontinent and other parts of the world. So when they do get the opportunity to play for their country, they're ready and they've been developed to a point where they can succeed,” he concluded.

--IANS

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