Huge audiences watched the Border-Gavaskar Series matches

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MELBOURNE, 6 January 2025: The last match (Sydney) of the Border-Gavaskar Series ended on 5 January, 2025, with Australia reclaiming the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 3-1 after a decade, on the third day of the match. While Cricket experts continue to analyse the series, the most significant news has been the soaring of audiences for all the five matches in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney beating all records.

Australia’s successful pursuit of the NRMA Insurance Border-Gavaskar Trophy created landmark attendance and viewership figures as cricket dominated the national conversation throughout the five-Test series.

A total of 837,879 people attended the series, the fourth most for any Test series in Australia and the highest for any non-Ashes series with records tumbling at venues across the country, says Cricket Australia (CA).

Nick Hockley, CA Chief Executive said,  “Congratulations to the Australian and Indian teams on producing one of the most fiercely contested and captivating Test series in Australian cricket history and to Pat Cummins and his team on winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in ten years.

“We knew this would be an extraordinary series but the size of the crowds, viewing audiences and the digital engagement across all CA channels has exceeded our highest expectations.

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“This series produced lifetime memories for the fans watching in packed stadiums or on their televisions and devices, brought our communities together and underlined the place of Test cricket as the pinnacle format.

“Thank you to everyone who has been part of this special time in Australian cricket.”

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West Test, Perth Stadium: Record daily attendance for any Test in Perth of 32,368 on Day 2, the second greatest total attendance for any Perth Test of 96,463 and the greatest total attendance for any Test against India.

Adelaide D/N Test, Adelaide Oval: A record single day attendance for a Test against India with 51,642 on Day 2 and the largest attendance for a Test against India at Adelaide Oval of 135,012 set in just three days.

Brisbane Test, Gabba: Day 2 attendance of 34,227 was the largest for a Test against India in Brisbane and the total of 91,195 was the greatest for any Test against India.

Boxing Day Test, MCG: The total attendance of 373,691 was a record for any Test Match in Australia surpassing the 350,534 who saw Don Bradman’s Australia defeat England in a six-day Test in 1937. The 74,362 final day attendance was a record Day 5 crowd for any Test in Australia.

New Year’s Test, SCG: The three largest daily attendances for a Test against India in Sydney with the new single day record of 47,998 set on Day 1.

The series also attracted the largest ever television audiences , and the largest audience for a Test series, since Seven and Fox Sports assumed the broadcast rights in 2018/19 across Seven, 7Plus, Fox Sports and Kayo Sports.

Across Australia, at least eight sessions averaged more than 2 million viewers with 40 sessions averaging more than 1 million viewers.

Viewers in India watching JioStar also set records, with viewership up significantly on the last Border-Gavaskar series played in Australia. The total number of combined audiences in India through different sources is not known, but is likely to be millions. One also does not have to forget all those who just accessed the series through different internet accounts.

The global interest in the series was evident with more than two billion video views and 168 million engagements across Cricket Australia’s network of social media channels since November 22, an increase of 205% and 150% year-on-year respectively. CA’s channels attracted two million new followers in the same period.

More than 4.9 million Australian users generated 42.9 million sessions across cricket.com.au and the Cricket Australia Live app throughout the series.

Video consumption on web and apps also increased significantly with 39 million views – an increase of 338% year-on-year, Cricket Australia reports.

By Neeraj Nanda

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