The first Test between Australia and the West Indies has barely caused a ripple on the Perth sporting radar, with former captain Kim Hughes labelling the tiny attendance as woeful.
Only 7,846 fans attended the 60,000-seat Optus Stadium on Saturday for day four – one of the lowest ever attendances for a day of Test cricket in Perth – to see Australia claim a 164-run win.
It continued on from poor attendances over the opening three days.
Only 7,846 fans attended day four of Australia’s first Test against the West Indies
A total of 10,929 fans attended day one, followed by crowds of 8,695 and 11,272.
Saturday’s crowd was the lowest of the lot, despite not falling on a school day or a traditional work day.
Cricket Australia have been heavily criticised for scheduling the start of the Perth Test on a Wednesday, and for the lack of promotion.
The unappetising start date was caused by the tight scheduling window following the Twenty20 World Cup and three-match ODI series against England.
A total of 10,929 fans attended day one, followed by crowds of 8,695 and 11,272
Former Australian captain Kim Hughes (right) slammed the crowds as ‘woeful’
It was also done to better suit prime-time TV audiences for fans in the eastern states.
Hughes, a proud West Australian who captained the Test team from 1978 to 1984, was surprised by the low turnout on Saturday.
‘It’s a shocker. It’s very disappointing,’ he told ABC radio.
‘I would have thought maybe 15 [thousand] or 18,000 given it is Saturday and a lot of people don’t work. And it is a lovely day, it’s very pleasant inside the ground.
‘It [the low crowd] is woeful […] terrible.
The three-game ODI series against England last month was also plagued by poor attendances
Only 4,524 people turned out for Australia’s One Day International against England at the MCG
‘It suits the east coast to have the game start on the day it starts. It suits the east coast. Even if they started this on a Thursday, then you could have had a Saturday and Sunday to plan for.’
Paltry crowds were also a talking point during Australia’s recent 3-0 ODI whitewash of England, with only 10,406 rocking up for the final match.
It was the lowest crowd for an ODI involving Australia at the MCG.
On the field, Nathan Lyon became Test cricket’s second most prolific offspinner behind Muttiah Muralitharan after claiming fourth-innings figures of 6-128 in Perth, as he ripped the heart out of the tourists on the final morning before they were dismissed for 333 in pursuit of 498 for victory.
Nathan Lyon became Test cricket’s second most prolific offspinner behind former Sri Lanka great Muttiah Muralitharan
Lyon claimed fourth-innings figures of 6-128 in Perth, as Australia claimed a 164-run win
Australia were forced to toil hard for the victory just four days out from the second Test, as the tourists lost four wickets in the first session of the final day but then dragged the game out towards tea.
The hosts also did it without captain Pat Cummins, who is in some doubt for Adelaide as he broke into no more than a jog on field and did not bowl while nursing a quad injury.
How the world’s top-ranked bowler recovers will now be a point of interest for the next three days, with the pace ace saying he was more hopeful than Australia’s medical staff.
Travis Head also claimed two wickets in the win, including ending an 82-run seventh-wicket stand that had frustrated Australia when he bowled Alzarri Joseph after his entertaining 43.
Lyon’s 446 wickets put him into eighth position among Test wicket-takers overall
Lyon then had Roston Chase (55) caught in the deep and bowled No.11 Kemar Roach next ball to cap his heroics.
His haul took him past Ravichandran Ashwin (442) and into eighth position among Test wicket-takers overall, with 446.
Only Muralitharan sits above the pair as the most successful offspinner in the game, with an untouchable 800 wickets to his name.
Lyon and 36-year-old Ashwin are set for a thrilling battle in India next February, with India to also play two Tests against Bangladesh before then.
Roston Chase put up a brave resistance for the West Indies, but was dismissed for 55
Once derided for an apparent inability to close out games on day five late in his career, Lyon’s haul also made him only the third Australian to pass 100 fourth-innings wickets, after Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.
‘He’s got plenty of different tricks now,’ Cummins said.
‘You saw him bowl over the wicket, around the wicket a lot. You felt like he could beat [the batsmen] on the outside of the bat, bring bat pad into play.
‘He just feels like he’s got a few different ways he can get a batter out, and he’s happier to chop and change between them as opposed to earlier in his career.’
Australian captain Pat Cummins is an injury doubt for the second Test in Adelaide
Lyon removed Kyle Mayers in the sixth over of the day when he had the allrounder caught at slip, before spearing one in past Kraigg Brathwaite.
After the tourists’ captain had reached his century on day four, Lyon went flatter and spun the ball back into Brathwaite’s off stump on 110.
The spinner had earlier landed the other crucial blow late on day four, with Jermaine Blackwood caught at bat-pad on 24 after he and Brathwaite had built a 58-run stand.
‘One thing he has always been good at but continues to get better and better with, is he can bowl 25 to 30 quality overs in a day,’ Cummins said of Lyon.
Marnus Labuschagne (left) became only the eighth player in history to back up a double-century with a ton in the same match after scoring 204 and 104 not out
‘There aren’t a heap of bowlers who can do that.’
The win keeps alive the team’s hopes of wrapping up a spot in the World Test Championship final before heading to India, with a faultless home summer potentially enough to do so.
Beyond Lyon’s wickets on Sunday, the match belonged to Marnus Labuschagne, after he helped set up Australia’s 4d-598 in the first innings and 2d-182 in the second.
The Queenslander’s 204 and 104 not out made him only the eighth player in history to back up a double-century with a ton in the same match, giving Australia the chance to have five sessions to bowl the Windies out.
