MELBOURNE, Sept 12: Perth’s famed Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA) Ground will be without a Test match when India tour Australia during the 2014-15 season, Cricket Australia announced on Thursday.

The WACA, a regular Australian Test venue since 1974, missed out when CA allocated its schedule of four Tests against third-ranked India.

CA said Adelaide, scheduled to complete an Aus$535 million ($500 million) re-development for the upcoming Ashes series against England, and Brisbane will join Melbourne and Sydney in hosting Tests against India.

“Unfortunately, due to the unique nature of the schedule next season, with a World Cup year [2015], there was going to be a couple of (Australian) states disappointed about our Test match allocation,” CA chief executive James Sutherland said.

“Although the WACA has missed out on a Test match, they will play host to up to four limited-overs matches in the 2014-15 season against South Africa as well as India and England competing in a tri-series in January prior to the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup [in Australia and New Zealand],” he added.

But WACA authorities have slammed CA’s ‘devastating’ decision to overlook Perth as a host venue for the Test series.

WACA will not host a match in Australia’s summer of cricket for the first time since 1976-77.

“Whilst CA will provide additional limited-overs matches to replace the Test match, there is no compensation for losing a Test,” WACA chief executive Christina Matthews said in a statement.

“The ongoing effect this loss will have on the WACA and cricket in Western Australia will be devastating and we are extremely disappointed by the decision, not only for the Association, but for our members and WA cricket supporters.”

The decision may dismay broadcasters, with Perth’s time zone more friendly to viewers in the subcontinent as well as those in Australia's major eastern cities.

But India's cricketers are likely to rejoice in avoiding the WACA's famously fast and bouncy pitch, where they were routed by an innings and 37 runs in less than three days in their last Test at the ground in 2012.—Agencies