Tickets for Tuesday's test match between England and India at Trent Bridge are priced from £20-£40.GETTY IMAGES
Only about 6,000 tickets have been sold for the fourth day of this week’s third England test, one-third of ground capacity, as Trent Bridge "faces the unusual challenge" of marketing the first test match in England to start on a Saturday since '55, according to Simon Wilde of the SUNDAY TIMES. Tickets for the Tuesday match are priced at only £20-£40 ($25.50-$51), some of the "cheapest on offer" for test cricket this summer. The first two days are "virtually" sold out and interest in the third day surged last week on the back of England’s narrow win at Edgbaston. But, as with other venues, Nottinghamshire is "suffering the consequences of a compressed schedule," during which India plays its five test matches in the space of 42 days (SUNDAY TIMES, 8/12).
RAIN CHECKS: In London, Nick Hoult reported Lord's experienced its "first washout" of a day of test match cricket play since '01 on Thursday, leaving the Marylebone Cricket Club to refund around £2M ($2.5M) worth of matchday tickets. Rain insurance will cover the cost of refunds and the bars "were busy at Lord’s all day" so, financially, the hit will be "relatively small" but it now leaves the second test against India a four-day match, with rain "even preventing the toss from taking place on Thursday." After such a "hot, dry summer," the wet weather "could not have been timed worse," with the first day of the Lord's test the showpiece event in the English cricket calendar (TELEGRAPH, 8/9).
