T20 World Cup: Australia to be welcomed by half full Optus Stadium for clash with Sri Lanka

Australia’s only T20 World Cup game in front of a Perth crowd looks like being greeted by a half-full Optus Stadium on Tuesday night. The ICC says it is expecting a disappointing crowd of just 25,000 people to turn out for Australia’s must-win clash with Sri Lanka at the venue, almost the same figure that watched Jos Buttler blast England to a warm-up win over the hosts earlier this month. Perth has been handed an unpalatable mid-week time-slot for its second consecutive global tournament, with Australia also playing in the west just once during its 2015 ODI World Cup-winning campaign — a 2.30 pm start on a Tuesday in front of less than 13,000 fans. The clash with Sri Lanka begins at 7 pm, meaning play could run until well after 10 pm on a school night. Tickets are still available for the clash for as low as $30. Less than 10,000 people watched England beat Afghanistan in Perth’s first game of the tournament on Saturday night. Perth also came narrowly close to hosting a likely one-sided contest against Namibia, with only a late slip-up from the African nation handing Sri Lanka their spot at the top of the qualifying group. The expected showing is in stark contrast to the 90,000 feverish Pakistan and Indian fans who flocked to the MCG for Virat Kohli’s masterful innings on Sunday night and the 34,756 who braved poor Sydney weather to watch Australia’s tournament-opening loss to New Zealand. Tuesday’s is the second of five games to be played in Perth, including Sunday’s double-header featuring South Africa, India and Pakistan — which is already a sell-out. The clash is also likely to feature at least three Western Australians, with State captain Mitch Marsh declaring on Monday that he was good to go with the ball for the first time in almost two months. Fellow WA all-rounder Marcus Stoinis came under scrutiny for his performance in the opening game, while Tim David is a lock in the middle-order. Cam Green appears set to miss out on a first appearance for the tournament, with Marsh hinting at an unchanged Australian side for the game.

T20 World Cup: Australia to be welcomed by half full Optus Stadium for clash with Sri Lanka

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