The mind-boggling costs Cricket Australia ‘could incur’ after England seal two-day Boxing Day Test victory

Cricket Australia are reportedly set to lose a jaw-dropping sum of money after England snapped their 14-year wait to win a Test match Down Under inside just two days at the MCG.

A total of 36 wickets fell in less than two days during the marquee Boxing Day Test match, with many criticising the spicy MCG green top pitch, which had been set up heavily in favour of the bowlers.

Many fans waking up in the UK on Boxing Day were left bewildered to see Travis Head and Scott Boland walking to the crease for Australia’s second innings during the evening session. However, the home side were bowled out for 132 on Saturday, with the first three innings of the Boxing Day Test astonishingly lasting less than 110 overs.

Pitch preparation has been a major talking point during the 2025 Ashes series, with Cricket Australia understood to have lost around $4million (£1.99m) in revenue, following the opening Test in Perth, where England were beaten inside two days.

However, with record crowds of 94,199 and 92,045 filing into the MCG on days one and two of the Boxing Day Test, 7News are predicting the curtailed match to cost Cricket Australia a whopping $25m (£12.44m) in lost broadcasting revenue and tickets for days three and four.

You’d have to go back 104 years to find the last time when an Ashes Test match lasted just two days, with Australia beating England by 10 wickets at Trent Bridge during the 1921 series.  

With this now being the second time in the space of a month that we’ve seen a two-day Test match, Cricket Australia CEO, Todd Greenberg, has voiced his concerns. 

When asked if 20 wickets falling in one day was too many, Greenberg said to SEN: ‘The short answer for that, in my opinion, is yes.

‘A simple phrase I’d use is: “Short Tests are bad for business”.

‘I can’t be much more blunt than that.

‘So I would like to see a slightly broader balance between the bat and the ball. I thought yesterday slightly favoured the ball.

‘The batters have some ownership in some of that, it’s not all around the pitch, but we’ve got some challenges.’

Financially, it has already been a difficult few years for Cricket Australia, who posted losses of $30m in 2023-24, before going on to announce in October that they had accounted for losses of $11.3m during 2024-25.

‘I didn’t sleep well last night, put it that way,’ Greenberg said, on Friday, reflecting on the prospect of another two-day Test.

‘It was an amazing day of Test cricket, so for that record number of people who were here, boy, they’ve had an experience.

‘But our challenge is to make sure we can continue those experiences day after day. That’s the challenge for all of us.’

Greenberg added that cricket bosses would be taking much more notice over how pitches are prepared in future.

‘Historically, we have taken a hands-off approach in all of our wicket preparation and allowed the staff and the conditions and those characteristics to be presented,’ Greenberg added.

‘But it’s hard not to get more involved when you see the impact on the sport, particularly commercially.

‘I’m not suggesting we’re going to go around talking to ground staff. 

‘But we do have to have a careful eye on what our expectations are over the course of a summer.’

Cricket greats slam MCG wicket

Granted, neither team’s batters performed brilliantly during the Boxing Day Test, with Travis Head amassing the highest score of 46 runs. But questions are now being asked of the playing surface.

Approximately 10mm of grass was left on the wicket at the MCG, with Aussie great Jason Gillespie claiming that the surface ‘has done too much’.

‘Bowlers have bowled well, but the bowlers are allowed to bowl well. Batters are allowed to trust their technique, strategise and figure out a game plan, and we just haven’t seen that today.’

Steve Smith was equally critical, asking grounds staff to drop the grass down to 8mm.

‘I think [it favoured the bowlers] a little bit too much. It was tricky, no one could really get in,’ the stand-in Aussie skipper told TNT Sports.

‘When you see 36 wickets across two days, that’s probably too much.’

Stokes, meanwhile, added that he wouldn’t be giving the match referee good feedback on the condition of the pitch.

‘If that was another condition somewhere else and that happened, you probably would get a pasting,’ Stokes said to BBC Test Match Special.

Nasser Hussain, meanwhile, believes that Victoria cricket icon Shane Warne would not have liked how the pitch had been set up at his home ground.

‘I’m sitting thinking of this great ground and our great friend and you’ve done a piece about him, Shane Warne,’ Hussain told Sky Sports. ‘I don’t think he would have thought that was acceptable.

‘I don’t think it’s acceptable not having spin at all and having so much movement in the surface. It was farcical at times, and when things are farcical, it is thrilling to watch. But your point is a good one, there are traditionalists in Test match cricket who like the ebbs and flows and the slow build.

‘That was not slow that was cricket in fast forward. And we have enough of that. Whether it be T20, T10, the Hundred, we have that. There will be Big Bash tonight or tomorrow night… This [the MCG] was supposed to have 90,000 fans in every day, and it was supposed to build slowly. That didn’t happen, but what did happen was England finally after 15 years have the win.’

While Cricket Australia’s bottom line was struck hard in the wake of the first Test, administrators at the Perth Stadium were able to donate all of the food that was not used during the third, fourth and fifth days to charity.

 The donation included 20 pallets of fruit and vegetables and two pallets of bread. Organisers also donated four pallets of sandwiches as well as four pallets of dairy products.

Food was sent to OzHarvest, an Australian food rescue organisation, who send the food to charities that distribute it to those who need it. It was the biggest single donation that OzHarvest had ever received.

‘Every effort has been made to maximise food recovery,’ Optus Stadium CEO Mike McKenna said.

‘Our chefs are busy turning about 450kg of sliced tomatoes into passata, some of the excess milk will become white sauce and lemon wedges preserved for future use.

‘Being able to support those in need is really a silver lining for the stadium team.’