Ashes 2021: The biggest re-opening after more than 260 days: After going through a series of lockdowns, Australia is getting ready to ease restrictions for the common people. In the same light, Australia’s Boxing Day Test against England could have a crowd of more than 80,000, a senior official said on Sunday as Melbourne emerges from one of the world’s most prolonged series of Covid lockdowns.
Spectators have been waiting for so long to see the live-action from ground zero but the fear of contracting and spreading the virus had been stopping them. Most of the cricket was being played behind closed doors but with Ashes on the cards, the talks about getting crowds back in the stadium are picking pace.
Ashes 2021: Boxing Day Test can see 80,000 plus spectators as Covid restrictions ease in Australia
“I want to see 80,000-plus people at the Boxing Day Test on day one, that’s what I want to see,” he told reporters in flagging a further planned easing of Covid restrictions. “We are determined to deliver that. It won’t be easy. I think selling the tickets will be pretty easy. But we are very confident that we will be able to deliver that.”
The crowd for last summer’s Boxing Day Test against India was capped at 30,000 per day due to the pandemic.
The five-Test Ashes series will start in Brisbane on December 8 before moving to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and ending in Perth.
Ashes 2021: Boxing Day Test can see 80,000 plus spectators as Covid restrictions ease in Australia
Cricket Australia said in July that venues would be sold to full capacity, except the 100,000-seat MCG, given the city’s battle against Covid-19.
Victoria state, in which Melbourne is situated, recorded almost 2,000 new cases and a further 11 deaths in the past 24 hours, but it is rapidly nearing an 80 percent vaccination rate when more freedoms have been promised.
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