Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts admits judging if and when the Sydney Test should be suspended due to bushfire smoke is a "complex" task but declared on Thursday the health of players and spectators would not be put at risk by hazardous conditions.

The New Year's Test will begin at the SCG on Friday in unprecedented circumstances, with a geographical area comparable to Belgium having already been left scorched in the fire crisis and lives and homes lost.

While Tim Paine took over the Australian captaincy at a time when the sport was plastered all over the news pages because of the Cape Town sandpaper scandal, the old adage that it's just a game of cricket has rarely been more apt than this week.

The third Test's status as a dead rubber in the context of the series has given it less weight than it would otherwise have had, but the backdrop of devastation to the sport's annual showpiece in Sydney has ensured that the usual pre-match discussion about team selection, tactics and what have you has been overshadowed by the impact of the fires.