The death knell for the fifth Test scheduled for Perth's Optus Stadium is set to sound with reports that players, officials and broadcasters remain unwilling to enter quarantine once crossing the Western Australian border.
While an official announcement on whether the western state capital will lose the showpiece contest is yet to arise, with WA's Premier, Mark McGowan, unwilling to yield on his quarantine demands, the five-day match-up appears dead in the water.
Under McGowan's watch, each member of each travelling party would be forced into a two-week isolation period, irrespective of the results of their series of Covid tests.
Given this fortnight pause would heavily interrupt the series that is set to run its course from December 8 of this year until January 18 of next, the fifth test would be extended through until February 5.
With this proposed addition still to achieve any form of approval, The Australian's Peter Lalor delineated the situation that it is certain to be shot down from those that carry the bat and the ball.
“The tone of conversation started to change last week at Cricket Australia in their conversations with broadcasters and others preparing for this Test,” Lalor told SEN on Wednesday.
“It had been, ‘we’re dealing with this, we’re dealing with this, we’re dealing with this, oh god we can’t cope with this’, it’s really depressing isn’t it? Especially for West Australians and WA cricket.
“They’ve got that fantastic stadium, they’ve got the facility next door at the WACA and this will be the second year in a row they have actually missed out on Test cricket."
While cricketing fans in the west are likely to be desperate to see the warring XIs do battle on what is sure to be a lightning wicket, Lalor suggested that the state's political powerbrokers were entrenched in an alternative camp.
“They just don’t want it. You heard the Premier there," the veteran scribe explained.
"Even the sports minister is on the front page of the local paper saying that it would be a bigger blow to have COVID-19 run riot in the community than to miss out on a Test match.
SEE ALSO: Why Melbourne or Sydney simply can't host the fifth Test
“It kind of shows you where the West Australian perspective is coming from. They must look at us over in the eastern states and see that we’ve been living through hell for two years and they’ve had the windows open and had it easy. That’s their attitude and it’s not going to change.”
While McGowan's foot is down from a sandgroper's perspective, Lalor revealed that the players under Justin Langer's stewardship were at their wit's end.
“I think (Cricket Australia is) coming to the conclusion they can’t play it (in Western Australia) and let’s cast our minds back a month ago and England was absolutely determined about the quarantine situation, well the Australians have joined them too,” Lalor said.
“The message is coming down from the Gold Coast, the players were rewarded for their World Cup victory with two weeks quarantine in Queensland which didn’t sit very well with them.
“They were saying if they had come back to New South Wales or Victoria, they’d be free people. They’ve just emerged yesterday.
“I’ve heard them say, ‘not one more hour of quarantine. We’re just not doing it this summer’.
“There’s a lot of things piling up and the broadcasters won’t want to go there either. Even if Cricket Australia hasn’t made their mind up it’s going to be made up for them.”
With the historic series set to commence on Wednesday week, Cricket Australia is now racing the clock to come to a conclusion before the first ball is bowled at the Gabba.
