An England match is in danger of being played in front of swathes of empty seats for the third week in a row with the Oval on track to be barely half-full for day four of the summer’s final Test.
After fans stayed away for the first two Tests of the Sri Lanka series at Old Trafford and Lord’s, Surrey are facing a similar fate with nearly 14,000 tickets unsold for the penultimate day of Monday’s dead-rubber contest.
Poor sales for England matches at both the home of cricket and two of the country’s other marquee grounds will raise serious questions for Test-hosting counties and venues, as well as for the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Selling tickets for Tests against opponents other than Australia and India is becoming harder every year, reflected in the price range for the Sri Lanka Test at the Oval which is around 25 per cent cheaper than for the Ashes last summer.
The cost of entry next Monday is between £75 and £145 for adults (£25-£45 for under-16s), the same as days one-to-three and similar to that for the Lord’s Test.
Telegraph Sport revealed last week that only 7,000 tickets had been sold ahead of the match for day four at the latter venue, which was less than a third-full on Sunday despite members boosting that number somewhat.
Surrey have sold around 14,000 tickets for the equivalent day at the Oval, around half its 27,500 capacity, with a source admitting it was “not going to be a sell-out” before adding: “It’s been a bit of a battle.”
Unlike Lord’s owners Marylebone Cricket Club, Surrey can blame the scheduling that places day four on a school day instead of a summer-holiday weekend in a series in which the three Tests have been played back-to-back.
Because of recovery periods between matches, that has meant the first Test at Old Trafford started on a Wednesday, with the second forced to begin on a Thursday and the third on a Friday.
The lack of a week’s break between each Test is arguably the consequence of an increasingly congested calendar, compounded by the advent of the Hundred.
England’s positive playing style, which results in many of their matches finishing inside four days, is another factor being cited behind poor day-four sales this summer.
However, fans attending Tests in this country are entitled to a full refund if fewer than 15 overs are completed on a given day and half their money back if only 15-30 overs are possible.
Surrey had no plans for a last-minute firesale for the Sri Lanka match, with a source stressing there was “still real value” to the tickets and that the club had previously “never had an issue” shifting those for day four of a Test.
But the source added they would “look at the data” to inform their future sales strategy for matches against opponents other than Australia and India.
MCC announced a review of its ticket policy on Sunday following the low attendance on day four of the Lord’s Test.
“We will be paying particular attention to the structure of fourth-day tickets in our pricing reviews given the way that Test cricket is now being played,” Guy Lavender, the chief executive and secretary of MCC, said in a statement.
“From the outset we priced under-16 tickets at just £15 for weekend days of our Test matches and introduced a group discount for day four. It is difficult to dynamically discount tickets in hindsight when thousands of supporters have applied through our 2023 ballot process and paid the full price.’’
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