Australia-South Africa Test at the Gabba to usher in one million fans for men’s international season

Brisbane, Dec 15 (IANS) The day one of the first Test between Australia and South Africa at The Gabba on December 17 will mark one million fans through the gates for mens international matches in their ongoing home summer, said Cricket Australia (CA) in an official release.

CA added that limited public tickets remain up for grabs for day one, while tickets are still available in all categories for the remaining days of the Brisbane Test, which is the first match of a three-Test series between the two top-ranked teams on the ICC World Test Championship table.

The 86,617 that attended the Adelaide Oval last week was the highest attendance for an Australia v West Indies Test match at the venue in 40 years as the hosts won the series 2-0.

CA claims that over 991,000 fans have already attend’d men’s international matches across Australia for the 2022/23 season, which commenced with Aus’ralia’s three-game ODI series against Zimbabwe in August.

The’ICC Men’s T20 World Cup saw 751,775 attend matches, with Australian residents making up 89% of those ticket holders. In a further boost to the future of the game, over 150,000 ‘hildren’s tickets were sold to World Cup matches.

Despite the crowd in stadiums dwindling during the Australia-England ODI series which began just three days after the end of the T20 World Cup, all three ‘f cricket’s formats continue to resonate, with the latest Nielsen research poll showing Test, ODI and T20I cricket all feature in’Australia’s top five sporting competitions.

“The response from fans to what has been an action-packed start to the season has been exceptional. The success of’the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup has provided an incredible platform for the s’ason and we’re delighte’ to see men’s international crowds trending upwards as we move into peak summer for our national sport.”

“The critical three-Test series against South Africa starting this Saturday will be played between two of the best teams in the world, adding to a long history of hard-fought contests. We look forward to the support of a passionate home crowd at the Gabba and encourage everyone to come along to be a part of it,” said Nick Hockley, CEO of CA.

The upcoming series between Australia and South Africa will be the first time these two sides will be meeting in Tests since the 2018 series is mostly remembered for the Sandpapergate scandal at Cape Town.

Steve Smith and David Warner will be in action for Australia and along with Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, and Travis Head, would be looking to thwart the pace challenge from Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, and Marco Jansen.

–IANS

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