Spectators fully refunded by Cricket Australia after the first day of the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy between Australia and India was called off due to rain at the Brisbane Cricket Ground on Saturday.
The opening day of the Gabba Test could only witness a play of 13.2 overs. If there had been 10 more balls played, Cricket Australia could have evaded refunding the crowd as a minimum of 15-over play is required to prevent fans from getting a full refund on the tickets.
The board could have saved itself from refunding more than $1 million as it said 30,145 cricket fans would receive full refunds, according to news.com.au.
Gabba’s entire wet outfield was underwater as play was called off for the day.
The five-match Test series — currently levelled at a knife edge of 1-1 — will continue tomorrow (Sunday).
Rain had started to pour after Rohit Sharma won his third toss of the series and invited Australia to bat first and Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney opened the first innings for the Kangaroos.
The duo had their innings interrupted due to a heavy downpour 13.2 overs into the game that sent the crowd towards shelter and ground staff working to cover the pitch.
Interestingly, Khawaja managed to score 19 off 47 deliveries, the highest from him in any of his last six outings. He has been going through a rough patch with his last fifty being against West Indies at the Gabba in January, as per The Sydney Morning Herald.
