"We Have Been Generally Pleased With The Crowds"- Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley

The recently concluded ODI Series between Australia vs England saw a massive dip in crowd numbers. The ODI at MCG recorded 10,406 fans which were quite astonishing to see. Australia convincingly won the ODI Series by 3-0 but there was no buzz around the stadium.

Australia played 5 matches in the group stage league in which there was an average attendance of 37.565. There was one washed-out match at the MCG against England. The Australian Cricket Team didn’t have significant support in their title defense which was astounding to see.

Nick Hockley on Crowd

Nick Hockley was having an interaction with ABC’s summer Grandstand radio show and was asked about the Summer and crowd. “We (Australia) have played 14 white-ball games in Australia, would you believe, before the start of the Test series. But overall, I think we’ve been really thrilled with crowds across the World Cup. Before a ball in the Test series is bowled, over a million people have bought tickets for cricket in Australia across the World Cup and the white-ball series.” said Nick Hockley.

“So we’ve been generally pleased with the crowds so far. There have been some exceptional circumstances and a real rework of the schedule to catch up after the pandemic, I  think it was suboptimal they(England) came so quickly off the back of the T20 World Cup, but they are a really important part of our build-up for the 50-over World Cup next year in India. We wouldn’t anticipate having that congestion of cricket as we look forward to the next futures tour program.” he added.

Disappointing Tournament for Australia

Australian Cricket Team was expected to win the tourney as they had got all the players. Their opening game against New Zealand proved to be quite decisive as a defeat by 89 runs is unacceptable in T20i Cricket.

The Aussies looked a bit scratchy throughout the tournament. David Warner wasn’t able to give the team a rollicking start which hurt the team a lot. With Aaron Finch’s & David Warner’s future uncertain, CA needs to start building a team for the 2024 edition quickly.

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