Melbourne sees Australia-India ODI moved out with floodlight issue, with the game set to be played in Hobart.
The third women’s ODI between Australia and India on March 1 has been rescheduled to Hobart due to delays in installing new floodlights at Melbourne’s Junction Oval.
Cricket Australia had to transfer the match to Tasmania, giving Hobart back-to-back ODIs in the series, due to ongoing work and planning delays that would have affected fan access. Originally, the game was scheduled to be the ground’s inaugural floodlit fixture.
Making the Junction Oval match a day game wasn’t thought to be feasible because to the series’ strict schedule, which only has one day between the second and third ODIs. Due to renovations, the MCG, which hosted the day-night Ashes Test the previous season, will not be accessible.
“We are disappointed we have had to move this match from Junction Oval and that there will be no women’s international match in Melbourne this season,” Peter Roach, CA’s head of cricket operations and scheduling, said. “We anticipated the Junction Oval lights would be installed several weeks before this fixture and were looking forward to celebrating the first international match under lights at the ground.”
Melbourne Junction Oval to host matches
The Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades WBBL games will still be played at Junction Oval during the day, along with other domestic cricket events as planned.
The ODIs are a part of a multi-format series against India that will culminate with a day-night Test at the WACA in Perth after three T20Is.
With the WPL moving to January and the ODI World Cup taking place in October, Australia’s women’s home international season has been rescheduled for February and March. It indicates that there will be a gap of almost a year between their domestic debuts.
“Not having an international fixture in that school holiday period does hurt a little bit, but in saying that, it kind of extends the cricket season, which isn’t completely a bad thing for our sport,” captain Alyssa Healy said earlier this year. “At the back end of the Ashes [last year], I felt like that was really cool to have it at the end of the Border-Gavaskar [Trophy], so hopefully there’s similar sort of momentum this year at the end of the men’s Ashes, that there’s still some more cricket to watch.”