Clear win to Adelaide in cricket popularity Test

To get the most out of a day at the cricket in Adelaide there are two paths to enjoyment — one bourgeois, the other bogan.

Australian players walk on to the Adelaide Oval on Friday for the second Test match between Australia and Pakistan. Picture: AAP

To get the most out of a day at the cricket in Adelaide there are two paths to enjoyment — one bourgeoi­s, the other bogan.

You can put on your RMs, moleskins and a chambray shirt and hit the Pimms tent and wine bars in the members’ area, where the dining options in the Village Green look more like a gourmet food festival than a sporting event.

Or you can sit on the hill in your thongs and footy shorts, stick a watermelon on your head and plug yourself into the West End Draught drip at the ­delightfully unruly bar under the scoreboard.

Before a ball was bowled on Friday, four Adelaide mums were doing things the right way in the members’, all dressed to the nines and having polished off their first bottle of Mumm.

Ryan Gromadovski, in black, and mates bowl up for a day on the hill. Picture: Morgan Sette.

Lysia May-Jamison, who works for fashion house sass & bide, is such a cricket tragic that she and her husband named their son Jonty after South African batsman Jonty Rhodes. “I love my cricket but here in the members’ it’s as much about the social side as anything,” she tells The Weekend Australian. “You can sit here all day and not see a ball, and have the time of your life.”

Things are less elegant on the hill, where groom-to-be Ryan Gromadovski is dressed as a ­female police officer for his buck’s show, having flown over with eight mates from Melbourne on Friday morning for the weekend.

“We have been on the turps for a few hours already but we are going to take good care of him,” his mate Jason Ball, who is dressed as a giant bowling pin, tells The Weekend Australian.

“We’re here today and tonight and we’re going to the races ­tomorrow, and we’ll probably hit Glenelg Beach on Sunday. It’s bloody great being here, this ground is sensational.”

If there is a better place to watch the cricket in Australia than the Adelaide Oval, we’d like to see it.

Laila Roberts, Olivia Burke, Lysia May-Jamison and Sally Crothers ‘out the back’. Picture: Morgan Sette

After a dismal turnout in Brisbane last week, with barely 4500 spectators attending the final day of the opening Test, there were more than twice that number at the ­Adelaide Oval before a ball had even been bowled, and with drizzling rain disrupting play.

The Adelaide Test has become the hottest date in South Aust­ralia’s social calendar, with the crowds for this match expected to eclipse the Gabba’s entire first Test attendance of just 45,891 by the close of play on Friday.

Armed with these figures, SA’s political leaders, with the backing of international cricket greats, are demanding the Adelaide Oval be guaranteed an annual marquis Test ahead of next year’s Indian tour, saying the ground should be treated with the same reverence as the SCG and MCG.

Both Premier Steven Marshall and Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas are calling on ­Cricket Australia to end the ­annual uncertainty over scheduling and guarantee the Adelaide Oval one of the major Tests as a matter of course each summer.

Ahead of play on Friday, SA Trade and Tourism Minister David Ridgway presented the followi­ng letter to Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts:

“SA has a long and celebrated cricket culture and Adelaide Oval is home to the best pitch in the country. The pitch was elevated to legendary status when Sir Donald Bradman began his captaincy of the SA team in 1935. I strongly urge you to consider confirming Adelaide Oval as a host ground for an India Test next season.”

At the traditional pre-Test Carbine Club lunch at the oval on Thursday, Australia team coach Justin Langer and Pakistan bowling great Wasim Akram received rousing applause when they both declared the Adelaide Oval Test was a sacred fixture on the world cricket calendar.