England's Jamie Smith, left, is bowled by Australia's Scott Boland, right, during their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne on December 26. (AP Photo)
With the opening day of the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne Cricket ground seeing a record attendance of 93,442, it meant that the all-time record for a single day attendance at MCG was broken. With the earlier record of 93,013 during a Boxing Day Test achieved in the 2013 Boxing Day Test, Friday’s attendance record meant that history was created at the iconic ground. While the 100,024 capacity stadium has hosted a women’s day-night Test, the iconic ground has never hosted a men’s day-night pink ball Test. Cricket Australia CEO shared his thoughts about the ground hosting a Boxing Day Day-Night Test and counted the option as ‘not off the cards’.
“Look, it’s not off the cards. We’ve been talking a lot about the strength of pink-ball cricket, it was amazing this year in Brisbane, it has been really good in Adelaide,” Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg told the media on Friday.
Only the Sydney Cricket Ground and Melbourne Cricket Ground have not hosted a pink-ball day-night Test match. Perth, Hobart, Brisbane and Adelaide have hosted the pink ball day-night Test match. Adelaide Oval had hosted the first ever day-night Test match in Australia with the Australia-New Zealand at Adelaide Oval in 2015 being the first such Test in the country. Last year, Adelaide Oval had hosted the day-night Test during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and this year Brisbane had hosted the day-night Test of The Ashes with the third Test in the series earlier this series. MCG will host its first day-night pink ball Test match when it hosts the 150th Anniversary Test between Australia and England under lights in March in 2027. The ticket ballot for the record Test in 2027 had opened earlier this week and Greenberg shared how Cricket Australia is aiming to make the historic Test a memorable one. “I don’t have the early numbers but the concept of running a ballot will give you some demonstration of what we see in this event (About 150th Anniversary Test ticket sales ballot). The strength of ticket sales and the interest it will have, 150 years of cricket between our two countries is going to be a pretty special moment. Those who were here in the ’77 Centenary (Test) still talk about it in great affection, and our job is to make sure that happens again at the 150th in March 2027,” said the CEO.
Melbourne Cricket ground CEO Stuart Fox shared how he prefers the day matches during AFL as well cricket season. “I actually love the tradition, personally, I love the tradition of a day game here. I think the day-night Tests have been great in Adelaide and Brisbane. I am a bit of a traditionalist – I love a day AFL grand final and love a day Boxing Day Test,” Fox told media.