BGT 2024-25: Ashes or Border Gavaskar Trophy! Who tops the chart according to Ricky Ponting?
Xtra Time Web Desk: Border Gavaskar Trophy and Ashes, both grabs attention worldwide. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 has become the fourth most attended Test series in the history of Australian cricket hence a common question is knocking the mind: Has the BGT surpassed the popularity of the iconic Ashes in recent years?
A total of 837,879 people attended the games in the stadiums which just not only awed the commentators during the tenure of the series but also shattered the records to become the most attended non-Ashes series in the history of Australian cricket.
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The BGT enlisted its' name as the fourth most attended series in Australian cricket history, behind the 1936-37, 2017-18, and 1946-47 Ashes series. When asked about the growing popularity of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and whether it had surpassed the Ashes, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting stated “I had a look at the numbers yesterday, it was something like 837,000 people came to watch the Test matches, which is unheard of here in Australia,”
“So now that this series has happened, Australia have England coming out next summer so we'll get a better idea then. If the numbers aren't the same, then there'll be no doubt that the (Border-Gavaskar) rivalry (is bigger), certainly from the fans’ point of view,"
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“There's two separate parts to this: There's what the fans want to see and the rivalry that they want to make of it, but it's also how the players view the rivalry between the three teams now,” Ponting said.
Ponting further highlighted that the number would have been increased if the Test matches went all 5 days, “Perth only went four days, Adelaide only went three days, Sydney only went three days,” Ponting continued.
He concluded, “Those numbers would have been astronomical if those Test matches all went five days. So exactly this time next year, we'll have a great idea of the biggest rivalry in world cricket."
