Tasmanian director criticises Canberra campaign

Tasmania's Cricket Australia board director Tony Harrison has lashed out at what he perceives to be a campaign to shift future Test matches typically earmarked for Hobart instead to Canberra, ahead of what is expected to be a small turnout at Bellerive Oval for Australia's meeting against a West Indies side currently sitting eighth on the ICC Test rankings table.

Bellerive has been extensively redeveloped since the most recent Test match held at the ground, against Sri Lanka in December 2012, with the new Ricky Ponting Stand dominating the southern side of the oval. However slim ticket pre-sales and the questionable drawing power of a struggling Caribbean outfit has left many wondering whether Hobart will be able to prove itself as a venue before CA schedules one of next summer's six Tests at Manuka Oval instead.

Harrison recently stepped down from his role as Tasmanian Cricket chairman in order to remain on the CA board as one of nine independent directors. However his loyalty to his state shone through in comments directed at the ACT, who Harrison felt were not working according to the "one team" philosophy adopted as a way of helping the game's custodians work in a more unified manner.

"I have read comments like, 'we deserve the Test, Hobart doesn't' kind of thing. I don't think that's helpful," Harrison told ABC Grandstand. "We are going through a process in Australian cricket at the moment called 'one team', which is the states and Cricket Australia all acting as one, and what has disturbed me most out of Canberra is that it is hardly 'one team' behaviour.

"[CA] spent a lot of money and effort getting this one team thing going, and here instantly we have an issue... I think that is disappointing. I am frustrated that this debate is on and Tasmania hasn't been given an opportunity to demonstrate that [the new grandstand] was a worthwhile investment and people will come and support it."

Canberra's status as the country's capital with the highest average weekly income in Australia contrasts with that of Hobart as the lowest, and Harrison said money had also been a factor in the ACT bidding successfully for other fixtures, such as last year's ODI against South Africa in November. Harrison said there were elements of CA who operated with money in mind more so than cricket.

"The workers of Tasmania are competing with the fat-cat bureaucrats in Canberra who have the highest disposable income in Australia," Harrison said.

"I do know that [the ACT] have made financial contribution to playing one-day international cricket there. So I suspect that may be the case [for a Test Match], but it hasn't been confirmed to me. There are certainly people in Cricket Australia management who don't necessarily look at it from a cricket perspective. They look at it from the dollars and cents perspective. But that's why we have a board of directors."

Other factors are conspiring against Hobart, Harrison said, such as the lack of a Test match culture based on matches not being scheduled in the state on an annual basis, while the modest state of the West Indies side - something pointed out by plenty of commentators and former players - also serves to discourage spectators.

"In the other capitals, they know there is a Test match every year whereas there hasn't been one in Hobart for three years. So there isn't the culture, people aren't used to it," Harrison said.

"The thing that has distressed me most is the talking down of the West Indies, which sends a very poor message to the Tasmanian public. I've been very disappointed by the comments of former cricketers who have made a lot of money out of cricket."