Is Gabba set to follow in Perth's footsteps?

Kolkata: The Gabba has long been a stronghold for Australians, who have relished in giving visiting cricket teams a hostile reception. And with good reason – boasting an impressive 42 wins and only 10 defeats in 66 Tests, it is no surprise that nowhere else at home do they have a better win-loss ratio. However, even fortresses can crumble, as India proved with their memorable victory in 2021. Twenty years prior, India made their mark with a draw, led by a brave first-innings century from Sourav Ganguly, laying the groundwork for their triumph in the years to come.

The iconic Brisbane venue lacks the sustained din of Melbourne (MCG) or Sydney (SCG) but Gabba is where dreams usually died for touring teams. That might change as the Gabba is set to miss out on an annual Test, for the first time in 50 years, after Cricket Australia signed only a two-year hosting agreement with the Queensland government.

At a time when most Australian cricket venues have secured seven-year contracts, this short deal doesn’t bode well for the Gabba, which is anyway expected to be renovated after 2030. The future of Gabba thus hangs by a thread after its 2025-26 Ashes Test. “In Brisbane it is harder (to plan) because of the infrastructure. There is just uncertainty, so we’re not sure of the long-term solution,” CA chairman Mike Baird is quoted as saying. “What we do know is the Gabba has a use for life that ends in 2030. We need a solution, and are working with the AFL as well on a long-term solution.”

Such uncertainty can’t be envisaged in India or England where most grounds are owned or managed by the respective state cricket associations. In Australia though stadiums are public properties. The Gabba – it hosts rugby as well as Aussie rules football – is owned and run by the Queensland government, MCG through the Victoria government-run MCG Trust, and SCG by Venues NSW, another state-owned agency. It’s an off-shoot of a policy that allows Australia’s federal state governments to build and maintain multi-sports venues.

Further complicating the issue is Brisbane hosting the 2032 Olympics. If a complete rebuild was chosen for the Gabba, it would have effectively gone out of rotation for many years. With the Queensland authorities only expected to renovate it, there seems no assurance that cricket might return. The Gabba currently seats roughly 35,000. Former Australia captain Allan Border has proposed demolishing it and constructing a new venue, envisioning a 60,000-seat stadium that could stage multiple sports, apart from the Olympics. It would be great for Brisbane’s outreach as a sports destination. But will it carry the aura of the original Gabba? Probably not.

Perth is an example of how a fifty-year love story with fast bowling was unceremoniously swept under the monotony of a concrete behemoth with entrances resembling those for five-star lounges, unnamed stands, tunnels instead of stairs for teams to walk out, and barely any breeze let in. The Optus Stadium is a futuristic multipurpose venue, a cultural epicentre in one of the most isolated cities in Australia, but starkly similar to the swanky arenas mushrooming worldwide. The switch from WACA to Optus undeniably led to the demise of a visual distinction attached globally to playing Test cricket at this Western Australia outpost. Gabba could go the same way.

And that is not great for the game, at least for Test cricket that tends to forge a bond with its surroundings. SCG has preserved its heritage members’ pavilion and the giant scoreboard while the Adelaide Oval has retained the red brick arches.

Apart from that, Australia seems to be slowly running out of venue-specific visual associations. Perth and MCG now bear a striking degree of sameness. The white boundary fence, once a trademark feature at Adelaide and MCG, had to give in to time. Constantly renovated since 1993, Gabba too was unrecognisable from the ground that had hosted cricket’s first tied Test in 1960. In the newer stands though stood out the haphazard pattern of seat colours that was apparently decided by a computer algorithm to give the impression of a crowd even when it was only half full.

That too could change in the future, but only time will tell if it was worth it.

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