It’s a washout: how Sydney’s Test cricket rain curse stops play and leaves Australian cities in its wake

The new year Test at the SCG in Sydney has lost more than three times as many full days of play due to rain than any other Australian cricket ground. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Even if it doesn’t rain at the New Year’s Test, and the forecast a day before the first ball is promising, history suggests it would be safer to hold the match earlier in the cricket season. At least 26 full days of play have been rained out at the Sydney Test since the 1880s, according to the ABC statistician Ric Finlay.

That’s three times more lost days than in Melbourne, which has hosted more matches. And even a higher rate than subtropical Brisbane, which was hit by storms during the third Test against India last month.