da aviator aposta： Fans or no fans in attendance at the Test, Australians will be following their World Cup-winning players’ progress, expecting more wins
da spicy bet： Alex Malcolm13-Dec-20234:32
What do Pakistan need to do to win in Australia?
The Test mace and the ODI World Cup trophy glistened in the hot, bright Perth sun.They were placed on the Perth Stadium outfield for a photo opportunity and broadcast overlay shots ahead of the opening Test of Australia’s home summer against Pakistan, the first international match Australia’s all-conquering men’s side will play since claiming both trophies overseas in the last six months.But there was no Australian player in the frame. There were no fans in the stadium. No political figures or even Cricket Australia executives looking to bask in the reflected glory.Australia’s twice triumphant captain Pat Cummins was on the other side of the ground, wearing his whites, captain’s blazer and baggy green, to pose with Pakistan skipper Shan Masood next to the Benaud-Qadir trophy.Related
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Just over three weeks on from Australia’s monumental triumph in Ahmedabad, in front of 90,000 India supporters, they will return as conquering heroes to something well short of a hero’s welcome.CA and Western Australian Cricket have thrown all their energy into rebranding “The West Test” in the hope of attracting crowds. But the reality is, they will be lucky to get more than 15,000 for day one of the first Test in the 60,000-capacity stadium.Cummins was asked about the dichotomy of going from the sensory overload of Ahmedabad to the sleepiness of Perth.”When you’re talking about World Cup finals, it’s the pinnacle, isn’t it?” he said. “We’re still on a high from that. It’s not going to get much better from that. But I’m sure it’s going to be well-supported here. Some of the Test matches you play in Australia, I think school might still be in here, you might not get the packed stadium, but you know there’s going to be millions of people watching. And it’s kind of the start of their summer, that first Test match. So we feel really supported whenever we play over here and probably after the last 12 months we’ve had, I’ve never felt the support like we have in the last month.”It is a prescient observation from Australia’s captain about how Australian fans consume their cricket.No mob of fans around Pat Cummins at the Sydney airport•Getty ImagesThere has been incredulity from the subcontinent about Australia’s reaction to the ODI World Cup victory. Cummins walking out of the Sydney airport three weeks ago without a mob of fans around him, with morning commuters barely even looking in his direction, gave rise to the theory that Australian fans don’t care.The team has been equally anonymous in Perth this week. Cummins attended a concert in Perth’s famous Kings Park on Monday night and was largely left alone by the concertgoers.But those public interactions run counter to the revelation from Google this week that the ‘Cricket World Cup’ and ‘the Ashes’ were the top two searched sporting terms in Australia in 2023, with ‘BBL’ running fifth. The only two non-cricket terms to crack the top five were the ‘FIFA Women’s World Cup’, which was hosted in Australia and New Zealand in July and August and captured the nation’s imagination, and a boxing fight between Jake Paul and Tommy Fury.