SYDNEY (Reuters) - Cricket Australia are still planning for the five Ashes tests to be played in front of crowds at the scheduled venues around the end of the year despite the challenges presented by third wave of COVID-19 infections in the country.

Chief executive Nick Hockley told local media on Wednesday that rising vaccination rates in Australia gave him "a degree of optimism" that the lucrative series against England would go ahead as planned, starting in Brisbane on Dec. 8.