Hobart named as Shield final venue

Hobart's Blundstone Arena will host the 2014-15 Bupa Sheffield Shield final, Cricket Australia has announced.

The Commonwealth Bank Bushrangers finished the regular season in first place, earning the right to host the five-day final against the Alcohol.Think Again Western Warriors starting this Saturday.

But due to the ongoing Cricket World Cup, Victoria are unable to play at their Melbourne Cricket Ground home, instead opting to head south and across Bass Strait for the domestic season's climax.

"We have nominated Blundstone Arena as our preferred venue to host the Bupa Sheffield Shield Final," Cricket Victoria chief executive Tony Dodemaide said.

"The MCG would have been our first preference but, as is well known, the ICC Cricket World Cup requirements mean it is unavailable in this period. The Junction Oval in St Kilda will in future be our alternative first class venue in Victoria once it is redeveloped as the Victorian Cricket & Community Centre, but is not acceptable as a first-class venue in its current condition.

"We explored all our options and Blundstone Arena, being a high quality international standard ground and available next week after its recent Cricket World Cup matches, was the best fit.  We are grateful for the assistance of Cricket Tasmania in coming to this solution and look forward to a successful event."

The World Cup has forced the Bushrangers to play their last three 'home' matches outside Victoria – twice at Alice Spring's Traeger Park and once in Adelaide suburb Glenelg against South Australia.

Speaking on behalf of CA, Executive General Manager - Operations Mike McKenna said: "We have accepted Cricket Victoria's decision to nominate Blundstone Arena as host venue for the Shield final given the exceptional circumstances posed by the ICC Cricket World Cup this season.

"Our Playing Conditions state the first-placed team shall earn the right to host the Shield final within its state. Given Victoria currently doesn't have a suitable alternative first-class venue that can host the final, it has had to explore other options and we accept that.

"In this unique year it would be unfair to penalise a team that has performed so well by removing its hosting rights due to Australian cricket's role in staging the biggest cricket tournament of our generation."

But the Western Australian Cricket Association believes it has the right to host the Shield final as per the 2014-15 Cricket Australia Playing Conditions.

The Playing Conditions state: "The team that finished first on the points table at the conclusion of the preliminary matches shall earn the right to host the final at a suitable first class venue within its state, provided that this venue is acceptable to Cricket Australia. Should the team waive this right, the choice shall be offered to the team that finished second. Otherwise the decision shall be made by Cricket Australia."

WACA chief executive Christina Matthews says a legal challenge to the decision could follow to test how binding the Playing Conditions are.

"We don't want to upset the game," Matthews said.

"I've been involved directly or indirectly with all sorts of legal stoushes around where games are to be played, and it never helps the team who is doing the arguing.

"But if someone comes and tells you they've got playing conditions and they're not legally binding, I think we're obliged to determine whether they are or not."

The Shield final was hosted in Canberra last year after the SCG was booked for an exhibition baseball match, but that sits fine with Matthews.

"Canberra has been a home ground for NSW over the last five or six years, so when the SCG wasn't available, that was a logical choice for them," Matthews said.

"And it is geographically within the bounds of NSW.

"But Bellerive hasn't been used for a Victorian home match all year, and it's over the side of the water as well. So we don't think it's a fair comparison

"When we inquired about accommodation, there wasn't any at the accommodation we normally stay at.

"And we weren't able to get our preferred flights without splitting our group up.

"So there's a whole lot of things around getting to Tasmania.

"It's much more difficult than getting to Victoria, particularly in a tight turnaround after a very long, heavy year."