Cricket officials will be barracking for India’s batters to make big runs in their second innings of the first Test to lessen the risk of a significant loss in gate takings that may extend across the summer in bowler-friendly conditions.
Fans of both sides may have enjoyed seeing 17 wickets fall on an entertaining and chaotic first day which raised the possibility of a result inside three days, but Cricket Australia fears a truncated Test will result in a substantial drop in revenue.
More wickets fell on the first day of the Test at Perth Stadium than on any opening day of a Test match in Australia since 1952.
Should that trend continue across the summer, CA would be facing a multimillion-dollar hit to its bottom line, while free-to-air broadcast rights holders Seven face losing valuable days of cricket content for which advertisers pay premium rates.
While sales of food and drinks for spectators, plus public ticketing, memberships and hospitality packages are hard to quantify, one senior official with knowledge of business modelling who spoke on the condition of anonymity told this masthead that lost revenue could amount to around $2 million per day in the event of an early finish.
India’s bowlers were well on top on days one and two.Credit: AP
Around 12,000 public tickets have been sold for day three of the Test. With a capacity of around 60,000, Perth Stadium needs to attract crowds of 30,000 per day or more to return a substantial profit if offering full staff and hospitality service to spectators.
That figure is regularly reached for AFL games and Big Bash League fixtures played by the Perth Scorchers, but Test matches at the venue have struggled to consistently attract crowds that meet that level.
With a pink ball Test coming up in Adelaide, and the following Brisbane Test reviving memories of a two-day fixture there in 2022 against South Africa – the first in Australia in 90 years – CA will be hoping each match in the financially lucrative series can go as deep as possible.
“Finishing in the last session of the fifth day [is ideal],” said CA chief executive Nick Hockley on SEN Radio before play on Saturday.
“The main thing is that we want is just fantastic Test cricket, a great contest … and as many people to enjoy it as possible.”
Pitches in Australia have been more bowler friendly over the past five years, with batters around the country agreeing that runs have been harder to come by.
According to Seven’s cricket coverage, the overall batting average for matches in Australia from 2016 to 2020 was around 44. Since the adoption of the new Kookaburra ball, which has a prouder seam and extra layer of lacquer, that collective average has dropped by 10 runs.
CA reported a $31.9 million loss for 2023-24 but was buoyed by attendances on the opening day. The crowd of 31,302 on Friday was the biggest attendance ever for a day of cricket in Perth.
CA’s decision to start the Perth Test on a Friday, instead of a Thursday like last year against Pakistan, has meant they have captured crowds on both days of the weekend. Officials breathed a sigh of relief when India made a solid start to their second innings that killed off fears of another two-day Test.
The 2022 Test against West Indies began on a Wednesday but went into the fifth day.
CA charges for tickets on day four but only asks for a gold coin donation on day five that goes to charity. “We don’t sell tickets for day five because of that unpredictability,” Hockley said. “It’s great television viewing.
“From a commercial perspective, you could say finishing on the last ball of day four [is also ideal] because it does cost to open the ground [on day five]. The biggest thing we want is great cricket.
“It’s a competitive Test match, that is for sure. The pitch was obviously, you know, quite lively, but that’s Perth. We just saw some exceptional bowling from both sides. I thought [Jasprit] Bumrah’s spell in particular was dazzling and incredible.”
This summer and next summer’s Ashes series have been targeted by CA to rebuild the game’s financial reserves, which were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 that reduced match revenue while raising biosecurity costs for the previous visits by India and England.
