Australia’s Boxing Day Test against England could have a crowd of more 80,000, a senior official said Sunday as Melbourne emerges from one of the world’s most prolonged series of Covid lockdowns.
How many spectators, if any, would be allowed into the cavernous Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for the third Ashes Test has long been up in the air. But with the nation’s second-biggest city re-opening on Friday after more than 260 days under lockdown since the pandemic began, Victoria state Premier Dan Andrews was hopeful it will be jam-packed.
“I want to see 80,000-plus people at the Boxing Day Test on day one, that's what I want to see,” he told reporters in flagging a further planned easing of Covid restrictions.
Read more: Army boxing competition held in Jashore
“We are determined to deliver that. It won't be easy. I think selling the tickets will be pretty easy. But we are very confident that we will be able to deliver that.”
The crowd for last summer's Boxing Day Test against India was capped at 30,000 per day due to the pandemic.
The five-Test Ashes series will start in Brisbane on December 8 before moving to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and ending in Perth.