SCG Trust stands firm

The SCG Trust has fought back against suggestions that international cricket will be moved away from the traditional home of cricket in Australia's largest city.

Trust chairman Rodney Cavalier told Wisden that cricket administrators must look deeply into the full financial ramifications of a shift away from the SCG and that alternative venues may not provide such a sound economic base.

"Cricket administrators should not allow themselves to be fooled by the line that a bigger capacity venue offers a better financial return," he said. "We don't need to build an economic model of what happens with an 80,000 capacity. There is a ground with that capacity in Melbourne. It's called the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) with a capacity of 96,308 prior to reconstruction."

"Over the past five years, the average Test match crowd per day at the MCG was 33,834 and the average one day international crowd was 38,805 - both well within the capacity of the SCG."

"Our records from last season show that it took four months to sell 50 per cent of tickets to the second one day international final at the SCG, 13 per cent of tickets were still available a week out from the match."

Cricket NSW has put the hosting rights for all international matches up for tender, with Telstra Stadium in a position to poach at least a few international matches from the historic ground.