Behind the glass curtain at the Adelaide Test
The regular Adelaide Oval punter will bite into their $5.80 pie and maybe wash it down with a $9.50 cup of beer. But what’s on the menu in the fancy suites? After a day’s exhaustive research, we can tell you what the high life is all about.
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As you bite into your $5.80 pie and wash it down with your $9.50 cup of beer at Adelaide Oval, do you ever look up into those shiny glass corporate boxes and wonder what they’re eating and drinking?
Well, after a day’s exhaustive research, we can tell you.
They’re eating mini Italian toscanos with smoked salmon, crab and crème fraiche. They’re eating a sticky prawn salad with green mango, coconut sambal and fresh herbs. And that’s just on arrival.
Later on you might like a yellow fish curry with barramundi, steamed rice and fried shallots, or even some Coffin Bay oysters washed down with a Skillogalee riesling or a James Squire Tropical Pale Ale.
Sounds flash doesn’t it? Those boxes must be overflowing with private school ties and doctors and people with hyphenated surnames, right?
Well no, actually. They’re over in the members stand, still grumpy that the new Eastern Stand ruined their view of the Hills.
The corporate boxes are actually filled with a much more diverse range of people, from Test cricket tragics who know a guy who knows a guy who managed to jag them the best day out ever to local cricket club volunteers who’ve scored a “day in the box” as a thank you for all their hard work over the years to people who wouldn’t know Don Bradman from Joel Garner and just there for a good time.
In one box you’ll find the Southern District Cricket Club, cricket lovers to the core.
South Districts president Grant Lovelock said day one of a Test match in the box was a “celebration of cricket”.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to invite some of our key volunteers along for a day out,” Mr Lovelock said.
“A lot of the people here invest a lot of time and energy into our club. We also have three county cricket players here from England who are playing with us this year – Lewis Hatchett, Ben Twohig and Ben Cox – they’re here today because it’s a great opportunity for us to present Adelaide Oval to them and for them to meet some of our volunteers.”
Mr Lovelock introduced Ben Cox as “England’s third-best wicketkeeper” – a title Cox wasn’t all that keen to claim.
“Third-best? That seems a bit high,” the Worcestershire player laughed.
“That’s very kind of him though.”
It’s Cox’s third season playing in Adelaide. It would have been his fourth if he hadn’t been turned back by immigration the first time.
“Unfortunately, in their eyes, playing recreational cricket was deemed as work,” he said.
“I had 24 hours in a detention facility in Prospect before they sent me home. I’m a bit reluctant to play away games at Prospect now. It has bad memories.”
A couple of boxes down the plushly-carpeted corridor we come across Merrilyn Muller and Carol Emerson, two ladies from the Bellarine Peninsula near Geelong who travel the world watching cricket with their husbands.
The group has watched the great game around, in the West Indies and in England and Wales, but rate a Test at Adelaide Oval as a highlight.
“It’s always such a nice atmosphere here,” Ms Muller said.
“It’s honestly almost as good as Lords. It has a similar atmosphere, everyone having fun.”
Ms Muller said her cricket travels were very much focused on the games, while Ms Emmerson admitted that the shopping was a big attraction.
“Particularly in London,” she said. “I get into trouble if I don’t turn up for day one or two, but after that I can sneak away and have a bit of a shop.”
The other boxes tell a similar story. We meet a bunch of publicans from the South-East having a great day out in town thanks to beer giant Lion, some trucking blokes, a couple of sparkies. Basically, average South Aussies having a great day out.
It is pretty flash though.