Cricket Australia officials hope to attract 90,000 fans on Boxing Day this year for only the second time in a Test, part of a summer that finally places India alongside England as rivals and Australia’s most important cricket partner.
The series, which begins on Friday in Perth, is the first five-Test competition between the two countries since 1991-92 and marks the start of a radical new look for Australian summers. India’s men will become an even more regular fixture, but Australia’s top players will leave their home country during the peak season from 2026 to play in the burgeoning Women’s Premier League (WPL).
Related: Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley: ‘I’m not very good at enjoying cricket’ | Jack Snape
In fact, under the current schedule, Australia’s top men’s and women’s players will both play in India in January 2027, at the height of the local cricket season.
Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley said while planning is a “balance”, change is for the good of the sport. “We are proud and very excited that the Indian series is now a five-Test series, and the premise of it was that the Border-Gavaskar is on a par with the Ashes,” he said.
Attendance and financial results highlight CA’s motivation. Not only has India become a crowd-pleaser as England’s ‘old enemy’, but broadcasting of Australia-India clashes will support North America’s financial recovery.
Hockley says relationships with each cricket club are important, but in “pure economics” terms a tour of India is “very, very significant”. “This upcoming series, it’s not just Indian and Australian fans, all cricket fans around the world are really excited, and we’re seeing that with the ticket sales. There are people coming from the United States, Canada, Europe and all over the world to watch this. »
Hockley expects the Boxing Day crowd figure to “have an 8 or a 9” at the front, which would push the turnout into rare company. The MCG’s largest cricket crowd was for the 2015 Men’s World Cup final between Australia and New Zealand, when 93,013 people watched the hosts lift the trophy. Boxing Day crowds have reached 90,000 only once before, when 91,112 people turned out for the Ashes competition in 2013.
“Think about Muhammad Ali during his career, that’s the heavyweight fight everyone wants to see,” Hockley says.
Rakesh Patel, founder of the Bharat Army – India’s equivalent of England’s Barmy Army – says growing interest in Indian men’s Test tours to Australia has at least doubled since the last series not affected by the pandemic in 2019 as part of a long term. orient yourself.
“The Indian team seems to be more competitive on the field, which makes the proposition a little more attractive for fans to come and watch their team play, because they have a chance of winning,” he says.
“There are people spending more money – especially the middle class – on cricket experiences, and that’s why you’ve seen a massive increase in travel.
“And you look at those generations of Indians who have migrated to Australia over the years. Now they also have a little more disposable income, they are a little more settled, they have good careers, their spending power has changed and they can now afford to travel, not just to watch cricket in their State, but also for outside their state as well.
Day one crowds are set to approach full houses in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. The interest is a huge relief for Cricket Australia, which lost $50 million over the past three years and drew crowds on recent tours of England and India hit by Covid restrictions, which also required new expenses like quarantine. “We were unfortunate that Covid hit when we had India and England, and we couldn’t have crowds during our big summers,” says Hockley.
But while CA’s annual match revenues halved to $18 million between India’s 2018-19 tours and the pandemic-hit 2020-21 season, broadcast and marketing revenues – despite the lawsuits from broadcast partner Channel 7 – have held up, at more than $200 million a year. year. This gap also highlights the major opportunity to increase the amount of content featuring India.
Hockley says the game’s finances will see an improvement over the next two years thanks to the new broadcast arrangements. “Indian matches attract a premium, so you will see that reflected in the years to come, but even more so next year, because we have an Ashes, and then we also had eight matches against India, all in one year “, he said.
Channel 7’s deal with Fox is worth about $215 million a year, while Disney Star pays CA about $50 million a year over seven years, largely for the right to broadcast matches involving India. “Cricket is very lucky to have India,” says Hockley. “Brutally, cricket would not be part of the Olympics if the Olympic movement did not attack a billion and a half eyeballs.”
The other implication of playing more Test cricket against India, as well as Australia’s long-term commitment to the Ashes, is that there are fewer matches against other teams.
In 2027, the Australian men’s team is scheduled to travel to India in mid-January for a five-Test series as part of a summer set to culminate with an MCG Test in March, celebrating 150 years of the 1877 match between Australia and England. .