Aussie legend Greg Chappell has described some of the batting in the Ashes series as ‘disrespectful’ to Test cricket – and it’s set to cost Cricket Australia a remarkable record not seen since the Bradman era. As well as taking a $30 million hit from two Tests that only lasted two days, Cricket Australia is also set to be robbed of breaking the all-time attendance record for a home summer.
The highest-attended Test summer in Australia was in 1936-37, when fans flocked to see Don Bradman and his ‘Invincibles’ play. With two matches held at the MCG in that Ashes series, a record of 946,750 fans attended the five Tests.
Two short Tests will cost Cricket Australia the all-time attendance record for a home summer. Image: Getty
This summer, Cricket Australia were confident of breaking that record that has stood for 89 years. The attendance figure currently sits at 645,559 after the first four Tests, and the 47,000-seat SCG is set to be at capacity for the first four days of the Sydney Test.
But with matches in Perth and Melbourne only lasting two days, the projected loss of attendees is about 210,000 people. It’s particularly galling considering the MCG holds 100,000, and over 92,000 attended each of the two days in Melbourne.
Even if the SCG is sold out for the entirety of the fifth Test, the 1936-37 attendance record can’t be broken. But if the first and fourth Tests had gone to at least day four, the 89-year record would have fallen on day two or three in Sydney.
Tellingly, this summer will still break last season’s record for the highest average crowd per day – currently sitting at 49,658. Cricket Australia’s head of events Joel Morrisson told AAP: “Such a high volume of pre-sales meant we were well positioned for the biggest Australian Test series attendance of all time.”
Even if the SCG Test goes into a fifth day, the series will only last 18 days and be the second-shortest in Australia in the last 50 years. The first four Tests have only lasted an average of 1392 balls – the shortest since one-off Tests were played in 1878-79 and 1887-88.
Greg Chappell has turned the blowtorch on Australia and England’s batters. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images for Cricket Australia)
Greg Chappell blasts ‘disrespectful’ batting
And despite the MCG pitch being rated ‘unsatisfactory’ by the ICC, Chappell believes the batting is just as much to blame. The pitch for the two-day Test in Perth got the highest rating of ‘very good’, which said a lot about England’s approach with the willow.
“Batters from both sides crumpled like autumn leaves in a gale,” Chappell wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald about the low scores in Melbourne. “They behaved like novices encountering adversity for the first time, oblivious to the blood, sweat, and sheer willpower that have sustained Test cricket through far worse trials.”
The former Test captain believes some of the batting has been ‘disrespectful’ to Test cricket itself. “These are not the first players to confront challenging conditions, and they will not be the last,” he wrote. “Yet, in their petulance, they betray a profound ignorance of the game’s storied past. Test cricket is not a fleeting entertainment; it is a legacy built brick by brick over nearly a century and a half. To disregard that history is to disrespect the format itself, and in doing so, they imperil its future.”