Cricket: NZ could be playing last test at Gabba

Kane Williamson. Photo / Getty Images.

New Zealand could be playing their last test at Brisbane's iconic Gabba with the city at risk of losing its routine test status within three years.

And next week's second test in Perth is expected to be the last to be played at the Waca ground, which has been Western Australia's only test venue since its debut in 1970. Change is in the wind in Australian cricket.

The Gabba has been a staple on the Australian home summer test programme since the early 1930s, and the venue of one of New Zealand's most celebrated wins in 1985, but the heat is on to hang onto its place on the annual schedule.

Just 6608 turned up for the fourth day of the New Zealand test yesterday, lack of interest is hurting, along with claims the seats are uncomfortable, the ground needs a facelift and the cost of food is too high.

The cheapest ticket to this test is about twice the price of a Big Bash League domestic T20 ticket, which regularly draws 25,000 crowds.

Small crowds at the Gabba are not new but it suffers alongside Adelaide's newly redesigned oval and the new stadium in Perth, due to be ready in the next couple of years.

Cricket Australia wants Governments paying for the rights to host tests.

Expect the Gabba to host a test next summer, with six tests to be played by South Africa and Pakistan, and the following Ashes visit by England. Beyond that, there's plenty of hard talking ahead.

What the Gabba has in its favour is the players like playing there, as you'd imagine considering their last loss in Brisbane was in 1988.

It is Australia's 'banker' ground, the traditional starting point of home international summers. Of 57 tests at the Gabba before the current match, Australia have won 35 and lost only eight.

The players are also known to prefer the natural pitch block, as opposed to the widely-used drop-in pitches.

And for all the fears over what lies ahead, the New Zealand test drew a record 52,199 to the first four days, a record for a transtasman test in Brisbane.