Western Australia keen to host historic Pakistan Test match

The Western Australian Cricket boss Christina Matthews has appealed to Cricket Australia to give Perth a chance to host a historic Test match against Pakistan instead of the West Indies for the second consecutive year. 

The three-match series, which will take place in December and January, will feature the traditional Boxing Day Test at the MCG and the New Year's Test in Sydney, with Adelaide also trying to secure a match. 

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Pakistan has never played a red-ball Test match at Optus Stadium, with their previous visits being limited to T20 matches, including their shock loss to Zimbabwe in the T20 World Cup last year. 

Matthews hopes to convert the large following of the Perth Scorchers into more international cricket fans and has expressed her desire to have more freedom from Cricket Australia in organizing Test matches in WA. 

“We’ve certainly made it known our preference is Pakistan,” Matthews told The West Australian.

“It’s not much about West Indies, but you don’t want the same team two years in a row, no matter what you’re doing.

“We haven’t had Pakistan here for a very long time, so being able to host them at Optus Stadium, which they’ve played at in T20 games but never for a Test match, brings something different into the environment, and they’re doing quite well from a Test cricket perspective in recent times and have got some exciting players.

“We see some of their players through the Big Bash League, so I think it would be good for us to have a different opponent.”

The Scorchers averaged more than 30,000 fans per game during the recent tournament, with a record-breaking 53,886 fans in attendance for the final victory over Brisbane Heat. 

Matthews will follow up with Cricket Australia in the next few weeks to discuss the possibility of hosting a Pakistan Test in Perth.

“We’ve just made it known what our preferences are, and I understand they had a board meeting yesterday (Tuesday) where it was further discussed, so we’ll take that up with them over the next three or four weeks,” she said.

The decision to move 15 of the 16 matches of the five-time BBL champions to other states last season was due to the stringent COVID-19 border measures imposed in Western Australia, leading to the transfer of Ashes and India Tests away from Optus Stadium.

“I do think that if Cricket Australia gives us a little more freedom, we could have an impact, and that’s something we’ll talk to Cricket Australia about,” Matthews said.

“It’s very hard to organise one-off international events from the other side of the country without really getting a feel of what we might need to do here.

“I think Cricket Australia will be open to those discussions, they want the national team to be well supported wherever they go and we’ve got a few ideas about what we might try and do but we want to talk to Cricket Australia about them first.”