India vs Australia Boxing Day Test To Have 25,000 Spectators Each Day

Cricket Australia confirmed the schedule for the India tour on Wednesday. The grueling tour will get underway with the ODI series, starting from November 27 followed with the three-T20 which starts from December 4. The traditional Border-Gavaskar series will start from December 17 with the Day-Night Test.

Hours after the hosting board confirmed the schedule for the India tour, which also saw Perth being excluded as one of the venues, Victorian Minister for Sport Martin Pakula confirmed the MCG could be a quarter full.

The Boxing Day Test match will have 25,000 spectators

The Boxing Day Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground will have 25,000 spectators every day. Pakula mentioned that the Victorian Government in association with MCC and the cricket board will develop a strict and rigorous safe plan based on up-to date health advice to allow fans in the stadium.

“The Victorian Government, MCC and Cricket Australia will develop a rigorous COVID-Safe plan based on the most up-to-date public health advice to enable a limited number of fans to safely attend the Test this year,” he said.

“Crowd numbers will be confirmed closer to the match but will be capped at around 25,000 spectators – a quarter of the MCG’s capacity.

India’s tour Down Under is the most-anticipated series’ for Cricket Australia after the pandemic situation has hit the normal schedule. The board has made special arrangements for the series, including the bio-bubble, as the traditional four-Test series will help them to recover from the losses due to non-commencement of matches.

The hosting board has been hit by a major turmoil in the recent past, and it continues to worsen. The tussle between the cricket board and Channel 7 has taken another turn as reports suggest that a legal arbitration being pursued by the broadcaster owing to a ‘breach of contract’ by the board for ‘delivering a product not equal in quality to what was delivered the previous year’.