The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) set a new all-time attendance record on Monday, with the total attendance for the fourth Test between India and Australia reaching an unprecedented 350,700.
The crowd of 51,371 spectators at lunch on Day 5 pushed the overall attendance past the previous record of 350,535, set during the 1937 Ashes series when Don Bradman was at his peak.
After lunch, as India fought to chase a challenging 340-run target, the attendance surpassed 60,000. Cricket Australia confirmed that the MCG's total attendance of 350,700 was the largest for any Test match ever played at the venue.
This number also surpassed the previous record for a Test in Australia, which was set during the 1937 Ashes match.
The fourth Test has become the second most-attended Test match in history, just behind the India-Pakistan clash at Eden Gardens in 1999, which drew 465,000 spectators.
On Day 1, 87,242 fans packed the stadium, while Day 2 saw a new record with 85,147 attendees, and Day 3 welcomed 83,073. Day 4 had 43,867 spectators in the stands.
All tickets for Day 5 were priced at 10 Australian dollars.
Stuart Fox, the Melbourne Cricket Club’s boss, expressed his amazement at the event’s scale, telling cricket.com.au, “I’ve not seen anything like it at a cricket match.”
He added, “The spirit in the stadium was incredible, with all of our staff remarking on how happy the crowd was. I thought Taylor Swift was big, but this has been something else. With Taylor Swift coming in, a fantastic AFL season, and this Boxing Day Test, 2024 is going to be hard to beat, I can assure you.”