2024 Australia v India Boxing Day Test could shatter MCG crowd records
The Boxing Day Test could draw the biggest MCG crowds in history, as Australia’s clash with India challenges our traditional Ashes rivalry with England for top billing.
Victoria
Don't miss out on the headlines from Victoria. Followed categories will be added to My News.
This month’s Boxing Day Test could draw the biggest MCG crowds in history as Australia’s clash with India challenges our traditional Ashes rivalry with England for top billing.
With day one tickets already sold out to the public, seats to days two and three of the MCG blockbuster are selling fast, sparking hopes that a crowd record that has stood for 70 years could tumble.
A surge in interest from Indian expats and thousands more touching down in Melbourne just for the Test is likely to see a new opening day attendance mark set.
The biggest crowd for day one of the Test so far was 91,112, for Australia’s clash with England in 2013.
But the biggest five-day attendance for a test at the MCG came in 1954, when 300,270 fans poured in.
While admitting weather, the state of the match and MCC member turnout would be factors, Cricket Australia events and operations general manager Joel Morrison said fans could make history.
“We certainly expect that we will see well over 200,000 people come through the gates,” he said.
“And if things fall our way, if it’s a match that goes all the way to the last session on day five and the weather is in our favour, then the crowd total could be anything.”
Cricket Australia figures reveal 10 per cent of all Boxing Day tickets sold so far are from overseas buyers, more than double the next most popular purchase area outside Victoria or Sydney (5 per cent).
Melbourne was by far the most popular Test for people travelling from India, with two out of three people flying from the subcontinent for the Australian summer of cricket coming for Boxing Day.
Tickets had been bought from fans in 41 countries with Indians accounting for almost 3 per cent of total sales, followed by the US (2.2 per cent) and UK (2.1 per cent).
Three times more tickets have already been sold to the Test than the last time India played before full Melbourne crowds in 2018-19.
Mr Morrison said interest in this year’s clash was at “fever pitch’’.
“We are seeing people come from India, the UK, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong and the UAE – so it is definitely a destination Test,” he said.
“And there is no doubt that the Boxing Day Test is one of the most iconic global sporting events.
“There is just something special about the MCG and the place it holds in Melbourne.
“It really is a shrine for all sports fans and we know that the imagery of the MCG really resonates so strongly, particularly in the Indian market with such a love of cricket.”
At this point in 2017-18, about 123,000 public tickets had been sold to the Ashes Boxing Day Test.
Last week, more than 119,000 had been sold to this month’s match and that number was expected to rise sharply as the third Test wound up in Brisbane.
“We know that we are going to get a really big crowd on day one where we expect we could tip over 90,000, which would be great to see,” he said.
“And we are seeing extreme interest in tickets as well for days two and three. So it’s shaping up to be an absolutely huge Test.”
He said there was “no doubt” the Border-Gavaskar series now rivalled the Ashes on and off the field.
“We expect this will be the most-watched cricket series of all time and it’s great that we are seeing that replicated with the number of people that are coming to watch matches live,” he said.
First topics revealed for Treaty negotiations in Victoria
Several big topics have emerged as the first points of discussion in Treaty negotiations between the Allan government and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.
Concerns Angliss Hospital ICU closure may not be ‘temporary’
Hospital insiders claim the decision to ‘temporarily’ close a busy intensive care unit will pose serious risk to patient safety, forcing many to travel up to 40 minutes for life-saving treatment.