 "England vs Sri Lanka: Poor turnout due to overpriced tickets mars fine series-clinching victory for hosts at Lord's")
And so to The Oval. England’s unbeaten run continues after they wrapped up a fifth consecutive Test win of the summer, beating Sri Lanka by 190 runs in the late afternoon sun at Lord’s.
Gus Atkinson continued his burgeoning love affair with the ground. Before this summer, he had never played a First-Class game at Lord’s. He now has two player of the match awards in two Test matches there.
If 7/45 and 12 wickets in the match on Test debut against the West Indies earlier in the summer was the stuff of dreams, then a maiden First-Class century and yet another five wicket haul here against Sri Lanka was surely beyond all imagination – he now has four separate entries on the hallowed Lord’s honours boards.
It wasn’t just Atkinson though who enjoyed his time in NW8 this week; Joe Root became England’s all-time leading century-maker with hundreds in both innings, his 33rd and 34th in Test cricket taking him past Alastair Cook’s tally. How much further up the all time Test run scorers list he can climb remains to be seen, Kumar Sangakkara in sixth place is just 33 runs away, Cook’s England record 72 more than that. Sachin Tendulkar and first place now 3,544 runs away incidentally – just under 70 innings worth of batting at his current average.
The Winning moment 🔥#LoveLords | #EngvSL pic.twitter.com/t6KAvcvc5E
— Lord's Cricket Ground (@HomeOfCricket) September 1, 2024
But ultimately events on Day 4 at Lord’s were somewhat overshadowed by what was going on in the stands, or perhaps more accurately by what wasn’t, England’s comfortable victory played out in front of a ground that was less than half full.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe cause was not difficult to ascertain, ticket pricing, the cheapest available adult ticket for the day on sale for £95, with more expensive options up for grabs too — not exactly a tempting proposition.
This was not a difficult situation to avoid, the MCC have known that advance day four sales for this game were poor — the combination of opponents, the speed of England’s recent Test victories and exorbitant pricing, understandably putting many off committing to buying Sunday tickets in advance – and yet when it became clear that this match would go to a fourth day, and with eight Sri Lankan wickets remaining overnight the possibility of several sessions of play too, nothing was done.
The results were plain to see and embarrassing for a sport that constantly claims to be trying to increase its supporter base, despite the gloriously sunny late summer skies and the chance for fans to watch England win, the stands were only filled by a smattering of supporters.
It is not as if ticket price reductions are some unheard of phenomenon, and yet even with advance warning of this potential situation nothing was done by the MCC – except, and arguably adding insult to injury, at the tea interval ‘late gate’ tickets priced at £15 for adults and £5 for U16s were put on sale. Although it seems unlikely many were tempted to snap those up given by that point there were just three Sri Lankan wickets remaining.
190 for two at Lord’s.
— Rory Dollard (@thervd) September 1, 2024
Not the lunch score, just the ticket price.
🙄
Even viewed in the most cynical manner the whole situation was a surprise, as much as anything the failure to sell thousands of tickets even at a cut price rate must have amounted to huge amounts of potential lost revenue – even if regard for supporters’ concerns often feels like an afterthought, profitability rarely is.
In response to the debacle the MCC chief executive and secretary Guy Lavender said in a statement: “We will be paying particular attention to the structure of fourth day tickets in our pricing reviews” – ultimately rather a case of closing the Grace Gates after the horse has bolted.
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