The Border-Gavaskar Trophy between Australia and India proved to be a box-office spectacle, capturing the imagination of cricket fanatics. According to an official statement issued by Cricket Australia, 8,37,879 people attended the series across five venues: Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney.
The series, which Australia won 3-1, also had the fourth-highest crowd and registered the highest number of spectators for any non-Ashes series. Looking at the success of the recently concluded series, former Team India head coach Ravi Shastri proposed a radical two-tier system for the “survival of Test cricket.”
Shastri spoke about how it’s important for the big teams to constantly face each other to ensure Test cricket is alive and thriving.
“It was also a sound reminder to the ICC that the best should play the best for Test cricket to survive. I will say that there’s too much of a clutter otherwise,” Ravi Shastri said on SEN Radio.
A Sydney Morning Herald report recently stated that Australia, England, India and the International Cricket Council’s new chairman, Jay Shah, are in talks to split Test cricket into two divisions.
If this happens, the big three nations can play each other more often. Shah, Cricket Australia chair Mike Baird and England Cricket Board chair Richard Thompson are slated to meet later this month, and a two-tier structure for Test cricket is on the agenda.
‘We need a two-tier system’
The former Team India head coach said a two-tier system for Test cricket is strongly needed. He also advocated for the system to include promotion and demotion.
“This match further emphasises why we need a two-tier system with the top 6-8 teams and then include promotion and demotion. You will not get these kinds of crowds if you don’t have two proper teams playing,” said Shastri.
The recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy marked the highest attendance for any non-Ashes series in Australia.
In Perth, the record daily attendance for any Test was breached on Day 2, with 32,368 fans in attendance. The Adelaide Test also witnessed record single-day attendance for a Test against India, with 51,642 runs turning up on Day 2.
The Boxing Day Test in Melbourne saw an attendance of 3,73,691, a record for any Test in Australia. This exceeded the previous 3,50,534 in a six-day Test in 1937.
