Given that Test cricket goes back nearly 150 years, it seems almost laughable to talk of the Boxing Day Test as a tradition. It became an annual affair only in 1980, once Kerry Packer’s Channel 9 acquired the TV rights to Australian cricket. And even then, the response was far from overwhelming. In 1981, on one of the greatest days of cricket ever played – Kim Hughes making 100 not out in a total of 198, and Dennis Lillee clean-bowling Viv Richards as West Indies finished on 10/4 – there were only 39,982 watching inside the cavernous Melbourne Cricket Ground, or the G as its regulars call it.
When India first played on Boxing Day, in 1985, the crowd was a pitiful 18,146, reflecting both how weak Australian cricket was at the time, and how lowly rated Kapil Dev’s team were as tourists.
How very different things are now. These days, Boxing Day is as central to the Australian sporting calendar as the Melbourne Cup, Aussie Rules’ Grand Final and the final weekend of the Australian Open. In 2013, as Michael Clarke’s side pulverised England en route to yet another 5-0 Ashes whitewash, a crowd of 91,112 thronged to the G on Boxing Day.
👀 take a sneak peak into team India’s practice session in Melbourne ahead of the Boxing Day Test.
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— RevSportz Global (@RevSportzGlobal) December 21, 2024
The last four ‘normal’ India Tests on Boxing Day have all drawn crowds in the region of 70,000. Because of Covid-19 restrictions, only 27,615 made it past the turnstiles in 2020. Expect thrice as many this year, especially with it very likely being the last Australia tour for Virat Kohli, who many Australian say reminds them of one of their own.
Make no mistake, the MCG on Boxing Day is as close as cricket gets to gladiators inside the Colosseum in ancient Rome. The towering stands – from the top of the Great Southern Stand, now renamed after the late, great Shane Warne, the players can look like ants – the quality of the light (unless it’s grey and rainy) and the animation of the crowd makes it a sports-watching experience like few others. From the fancy-dress costumes to the beer snakes and the snarky comments from Bay 13, there’s little danger of anyone taking a nap, so vibrant is the holiday ambience.
And this time, there’s a place in the World Test Championship final up for grabs as well. Australia are the reigning champions, but two bad results over the holiday fortnight and they’ll need to climb a mountain – or Sigiriya Fort – in Sri Lanka to qualify. As for India, there is no margin for error. Lose in Melbourne and the players will almost certainly be watching the Lord’s final from their couch or a hospitality box.
For once, what’s at stake matches the sense of occasion. It should be one heck of a contest, with India returning to the scene of one of their most famous victories, the match after they had been rolled over for 36 in Adelaide.