Cricket: Why Northern Australia Could Become a Permanent Part of Australia’s International Season

International cricket made a successful return to Northern Australia this August, with sell-out crowds across Darwin, Cairns and Mackay for Australia’s white-ball series against South Africa. While television ratings will ultimately determine whether the experiment proves commercially worthwhile for Cricket Australia, there is every chance that Northern Australia could feature more prominently in the years ahead.

Once touted as a regular fixture, Darwin had not hosted an international match for 20 years, Mackay for more than 30, and only COVID-era scheduling delivered recent games in Cairns and Townsville. For locals and winter relief seeking fans, more is on the way, Bangladesh are already scheduled to play two Tests in 2026, brought forward from March 2027 to make way for the Sesquicentennial Test.

But the north need not be limited to one-off tours against lower-drawing sides or displaced fixtures squeezed out of the traditional summer. For a number of reasons, international cricket in Darwin, Cairns, Townsville, Mackay and even Alice Springs could become a permanent feature of the calendar.

A Future Scenario

A future scenario could see red and white ball cricket staged in the north three out of every four years, pausing only for away Ashes tours. This could include Test and limited-overs series against South Africa and New Zealand, whose schedules overlap with Australia’s summer, as well as visiting teams like Pakistan and Bangladesh. With domestic T20 leagues consuming the prime months of each country’s home season, how often are South Africa going to be willing to vacate their prime summer period to travel to Australia for Boxing Day and New Years tests? Similarly New Zealand are the main tourists next year for 4 tests taking up all of December, are they going to be willing to give up that space in future? 

The Stadium Factor

The strongest case, however, for more Northern matches lies with the usual cricket money spinners India & England, and the massive 60,000 seat Perth Stadium and new Brisbane Olympic stadium. 

These days white ball series against India and England are no longer tacked on to the end of the test series but played in a different year altogether. With Big Bash taking over the prime January slot, international white ball fixtures have been pushed to edges of the cricket season October & November period with limited success. 

Shifting 2 or 3 tests up North every second season, would free up the more traditional Early December - Late November for key white ball series against India and England, and arguably be a much better use of the higher capacity stadiums in Perth and Brisbane which would still retain high drawing Ashes and BGT tests. 

Outside of the Ashes and Border-Gavasker trophy, test matches in Perth and Brisbane are relatively low drawing affairs. Highlighted even more so by Perth stadium, which through the TV broadcast highlights vacant seats in the baking sun, whilst the majority of the crowd sits in the shade unable to be picked up by the cameras. 

The WA government’s ‘West Test’ branding and aggressive courting of the first test of the summer, whilst welcome, managed to get a record opening day attendance for a non England/India test in Perth against Pakistan of albeit just 16,259 spectators. A similar occurrence can be expected in the new Brisbane stadium when it opens.

Less Tests for Brisbane and Perth but Bigger ODI & T20 Matches.

Cricket Australia will need to weigh the commercial and growth potential of permanently embedding Northern Australia in the fixture list, whilst reducing the number of test for Perth and Brisbane. This would would give the flexibility to stage marquee white-ball series against India and England in more favourable months.

The prospect of full houses for ODIs and T20s in Perth and Brisbane may be the decisive factor that tips the balance.