A world-record crowd of over 91,000 attended day one of the Melbourne Test match and officials will be happy with half that many for Sunday’s opening one-day clash.
Australia’s five-match series of one-day international (ODI) games against England starts at the MCG, the scene of the first Test match in March 1877 and the first ODI game on January 5 1971.
The same ground will also host the World Cup final on March 29 2015.
Melbourne Cricket Club communications manager Shane Brown said he hoped the interest generated by Australia’s five-nil Ashes sweep, including 91,112 people turning up on Boxing Day, would flow into the ODI series.
“The weather’s supposed to be really good (a top of 25C is forecast). Australia’s on a roll,” Brown told AAP on Friday.
“We’re expecting about 40,000. Forty-five thousand would be a good outcome.
“The same game three years ago against England on January 16 2011 we got 34,854.”
Brown said it was hard to pin down a likely crowd size two days out from the event.
“A large proportion of one-day international crowds are walk-ups,” he said.
Australia’s ODI game against Sri Lanka on January 11 2013 attracted a crowd of 27,461. However a Twenty20 International between the same two sides 17 days later drew 39,427 fans.
England’s T20 International at the MCG against Australia on January 14 2011 attracted almost 59,000 fans and Brown says a similar crowd is on the cards for the second T20 International on January 31 2014.
The five-match ODI series is followed by three T20 clashes in Hobart (January 29), Melbourne and Sydney’s ANZ Stadium (February 2).
“We’re thinking 60,000 or 65,000 for the T20,” Brown said.
“The Big Bash League has come into that too. There’s a lot of cricket in the January period.
“Sunday’s probably a good litmus test for where one-day international cricket sits in the landscape.”
Cricket Australia is chalking some good crowd numbers in the BBL and Test arenas and the ODI series is the next wave of a busy summer.
“We’ve been pleased by the crowds throughout the summer, which have exceeded expectations throughout the Ashes series and the Big Bash League,” CA said in a statement.
“Sunday’s got a great forecast and we encourage people to get along and watch Australia take on England.”
