A Look at the Record Breaking 2024/25 Border Gavaskar Trophy Series
Since 1996, the inaugural year of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, this Test cricket showpiece has grown and grown to become the preeminent Test Series along with the Ashes. This year was no exception with record crowds – a total of 837,879 attendees – and a close contest resulting in Australia winning for the first time in a decade. The Test’s standing as the pinnacle of the game continues.
From the November 22 opening day in Perth to its January 5 conclusion in Sydney, the series played out in some of the world’s leading cricket venues, delighting crowds and televising the action to a global market in excess of two billion. Test cricket attendance records were broken at Perth Optus Stadium, Adelaide Oval, the MCG and the SCG, setting the scene for this great contest.
“A record breaking 47,566 spectators crammed into the Pink Test on Day 1 marking a ground record for the SCG,” says Alastair Richardson, COX Director. “The Noble Bradman and Victor Trumper Stands, both designed by COX, were at capacity during the Test’s three days; as the game ebbed and flowed, the crowd’s excitement and dynamism were there for all to see. This marked the largest Test audience since the completion of the Noble Bradman Stand in 2014.”
“The Pink Test enabled the McGrath Foundation to raise over A$8.5 million to provide care to those impacted by cancer. It also saw the functions of the three-day event flow next door into Allianz Stadium, where the annual Jane McGrath Day high tea fundraiser was held for five hundred guests,” Alastair continues.
Similar record-breaking events occurred in Melbourne, with 373,691 spectators flowing through the MCG turnstile, the largest Test crowd ever attending the five-day cricket extravaganza. This surpasses 1937’s previous record of 350,534 set in the days of Donald Bradman for the then six-day Ashes series. The 74,362 fans that attended day 5 set another attendance milestone for the last day of a Test. Innovation was abound at the MCG, including advanced entry scanning which sped up the process and autonomous cashless food and beverage sales delivering excellent fair to all.
Melbourne Cricket Club CEO Stuart Fox likened the MCG crowds to February’s sell out Taylor Swift concerts and the 2024 AFL season which averaged 60,000 per match at the same stadium: “I’ve not seen anything like it at a cricket match. I think that just the spirit in the stadium … all of our staff on day one just said how happy the crowd were. I thought Taylor Swift was big, but this has been something else.”
Despite the wash out in Brisbane casting a proverbial cloud over the party, over 90,000 fans still braved the elements to see the match rain out – surely something to consider as the city moves towards the development of a new venue and the future timing of the Brisbane Test.
Whilst Adelaide didn’t break records, it still provided record crowds for an Australia v India Test with 36,225 fans on Day 1 and a sellout crowd of 51,642 on Day 2.
At Perth Optus Stadium, crowd records were once again broken, setting the scene for the coming series. Record attendees of 31,302 (day 1) and 32,368 (day 2) set a record for Test cricket attendance in Perth. A total of 96,463 over the three days saw India go one up on a seesawing Test and the scene was set for the next six weeks.
All in all, over six weeks an astonishing 837,879 fans turned up for this record-breaking series and over 600,000 attended COX-designed venues. “The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is a blockbuster event, and it has been fantastic to see such strong attendance right across the summer,” said Joel Morrison, Cricket Australia’s Executive General Manager, Events & Operations. “A big thank you to Australian cricket fans for your ongoing support of our great game. This demonstrates the power of cricket to bring communities together.”
Test cricket is very much alive, loved by fans and a vital part of our sporting heritage and legacy. We can’t wait for the 2025–26 Ashes series when Australia takes on England and undoubtedly sees more record-breaking attendance numbers.
