'They don't listen': Starc reveals hosts are upset over switch from Gabba

Mitchell Starc has admitted that Australia's players are upset at the decision to shift the opening Ashes Test from its traditional home of Brisbane's Gabba - nicknamed "the Gabattoir" because of its reputation as the graveyard of touring sides, and a ground where England have won just two of their last 20 games dating back to 1946 - to Perth Stadium.

- Simon Burnton

Asked whether his side could expect to enjoy a similar advantage at the first Test's new venue, Starc said: “We'll find out in a week, won’t we? They don’t listen to the players, we would have liked to start in Brisbane, too.”

England’s Gus Atkinson said that though “there are no scars for me” from his country’s previous failures in Brisbane given he is a first-time Ashes tourist, “history would say it’s probably a good thing we’re not starting at the Gabba”.

But Isaac McDonald, the chief curator at Perth Stadium, defended the decision, saying that the city's relative proximity to England makes it a sensible first stop. “We've actually opened the last four summers here,” McDonald said. “So we’ve been the first Test of the summer for the last four years. You get all the first-game hype regardless who it is - I thought last year with the Indian touring team that it was crazy but this is a whole new level, being in the Ashes.