Barmy Tigers welcome Lions
By Stephen Rielly
The Age
February 17, 2006
WOULD you invite the Barmy Army into your home? Richmond might.
The Tigers haven't quite put out their welcome mat for the English hordes expected to arrive for next summer's Ashes series but are considering transforming Punt Road into "Pom Road" for a few days — a place for the many who are expected to miss out on tickets for the earliest days of the Boxing Day Test to gather, sing, drink … and perhaps commiserate.
It is understood Richmond chief executive Steve Wright spoke to Cricket Australia last week about the idea of using the Punt Road precinct for the expected overflow of English fans, which, on day one of the Boxing Day Test, could run to several thousand.
"Obviously, Punt Road is in very close proximity to the MCG and if we can look at ways in which we can utilise the ground into MCG activities that would be great," Wright said yesterday.
"Anything we might do is, at this stage, a long way off but equally we are certainly considering various concepts for the ground."
The Richmond board is due to meet early next week when it is expected that further thought will be given to Boxing Day possibilities such as the installation of a giant screen, marquees and the availability of English beers.
Each year Punt Road is co-opted into the festivities surrounding AFL grand final week.
Corporate guests are entertained on the ground, and fans unable to get a ticket to the match are able to watch it on a big screen and share in a little of the atmosphere filtering from the MCG a short distance away.
Sydney started its round of public celebrations at Punt Road after winning the AFL grand final at the MCG last year.
As many as 20,000 English visitors are expected for the Christmas-New Year period, when the Melbourne and Sydney Tests will be played.
More than 10,000 English fans arrived for the last Ashes series in the summer of 2002-03 and Cricket Australia said last week that it was expecting many more at the end of this year.
Officials hope the Boxing Day crowd will break the world record of 90,800 for a single day of a Test match, set in Melbourne more than 40 years ago when Australia played the West Indies.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said last week that through an allocation of tickets to English tour operators he expected about 10,000 tickets a day for the Melbourne Test to go to English fans.
The prospect of unprecedented numbers of English arriving for the series, which brings together the game's most ancient enemies for the first time since England won back the Ashes in 2005, has prompted Cricket Australia to offer priority access to tickets to Australians who register to join what it is calling "the Australian cricket family".
Tickets for the Ashes Tour go on sale on June 1, at first to members of the "family", with any remaining tickets on sale to the general public and overseas visitors three weeks later, from June 19.
The Barmy Army was, in effect, created by the Australian media's description of the English cricket supporters who came to Australia for the Ashes series in 1994/95. Australia remains by far the group's most popular destination.
England will play four times in Melbourne during its three-month tour later this year: the Boxing Day Test, and three one-day internationals, including a one-day final on February 9.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/articles/2006/02/16/1140064205701.html
