3 Things To Do In Australia
A big vast empty land with simply ‘a million things to do’, ‘a million miles apart’, which is no one’s fault, and when you are travelling to Australia to watch Test Cricket, then your limited time to 'see things' is even less when sunning yourself for 5-Days at the game.
The above is purely our favourite city, state, and region and by no means suggesting them to be the 'best'. Taste is subjective.
If you are lucky, your team will play at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day and the Sydney Cricket Ground in the New Year as the two drawcard fixtures.
Unlike England where ‘every visiting team’ will be granted the honour of playing at Lord’s, Melbourne and Sydney Test Matches are Cricket Australia’s biggest season earners, as such, there is little to no chance of Afghanistan, Ireland, or sadly even the West Indies taking to Australia’s biggest cricket stages.
Uniquely, lowly Zimbabwe have had the honour of playing in Sydney, in October 2003. Ironically, Sydney were 'rewarded' that Test match due to excellent crowd attendance the previous year. Come Day 4 of the Zimbabwe Test, all 500+ spectators were ushered into the Members, with the rest of the venue closed.
Anyhoos, unless you are England Cricket Team or India Cricket Team, prepare to not see your team play in Australia over Christmas and New Year. Saying this, Pakistan, South Africa, and New Zealand have played both Melbourne and Sydney in recent years, so it really is a lottery.
If you come to Melbourne and Sydney anyway you are not short of places to go, things to see, and people to enjoy no matter what your persuasion.
If you are playing in all other parts of this Great Southern Land, you do need an element of preparedness to ensure you get where you want to go.
My cousin in the UK once said before his first visit to Australia, “One day I’d like to pop over to Ayers Rock (Uluru)”. When I finished laughing I reminded him that no one ‘pops over’ to Ayers Rock, as if you are going to see the local village ‘Town Square’.
You need one day to fly over, one day to see Uluru, and one day to fly home. That’s if you don’t see anywhere else.
Australia is so big, make sure you plan something as there’s not always reason to stay in the city you play the game. No matter what time of year you find yourself here for cricket the following is how we would invest our spare time in each city Test Cricket is played.