Cricket Australia aim for bumper crowds at Ashes

The upcoming Ashes series between Australia and England is likely to be played in front of large crowds, with the venues being sold to full capacity. Cricket Australia executive Nick Hockley said the tickets will be available for purchase from Monday, with all the stadiums sold to their limits apart from Melbourne, which will see a crowd capacity of 85%. Hockley revealed if the Australian Government impose any restrictions on the crowd capacities, the fans will get full refunds.

Advertisment

"The Ashes rivalry is one of the biggest in world sport, and we hope that conditions will allow as many fans as possible to attend," Hockley said in a statement late Wednesday. "In the event that capacities are reduced due to government restrictions associated with the pandemic, we of course guarantee fans full refunds."

The 2021-2022 Ashes gets underway on December 8th in Brisbane before the teams move to Adelaide for the Day-Night Test. The next match will be the traditional Boxing Day Test in Melbourne which will be followed by Tests in Sydney and Perth.

Also read: Australia players likely to be available for second leg of IPL 2021: Report - Sky247 Blog

Advertisment

Hockley’s comments came amidst a spike in COVID-19 cases of the new Delta Variant which has forced Sydney, Brisbane and Perth into lockdown. Consequently, all the sporting events have been moved out of the cities. At the moment, with all the bans on international travel in Australia, Hockley seems a bit over-optimistic.

"Hopefully people will be able to make the trip but if they can't, then I know they'll be following very closely from England and from around the cricket world," Hockley said.

Australia have a packed calendar ahead. They will tour West Indies and Bangladesh for the limited-overs series before participating in the T20 World Cup. They will then host Afghanistan in a one-off Test in Hobart post which they will cross swords with England in Ashes.

Follow SKY247.net for all the latest cricket, football, and other sports news from all parts of the world.