England’s sports fans are known as some of the world’s most committed travelers. Whether it’s the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand or even just Ricky Hatton in a boxing fixture in Las Vegas, you can guarantee that they will be there in large numbers.
So with an Ashes series in Australia on the horizon, the time has come for England’s hordes of cricket fans to make the decision on weather or not to cash in for a summer of the beach, beer, batsmen and banter.
The cost of doing so is no less than a small fortune for some, a financial commitment to the game that should be applauded. And yet Cricket Australia is again treating traveling fans with contempt.
Let’s start with the first issue, Australia is a bloody expensive place to visit.
After a flight between $1600-$2000, things like food, accommodation, beer (big essential) and other day to day costs are significantly more expensive in Australia compared to other popular destinations thanks to a high dollar value and other factors.
While traveling fans are happy enough to take on this burden, what they are not impressed with is Cricket Australia insistence on all Barmy Army tickets being bundled into tour packages.
For the third series in a row, instead of being allowed to make their own travel plans to suit either their economic or social plans, England cricket fans have been told that in order to guarantee sitting with there mates and other traveling supporters, they must fork out a minimum of $1000 for a ticket and pre-planned hotel arrangements.
This one package fits all arrangement completely disregards those who will be traveling independently to Australia, the large numbers who are experienced tourists who will book independently, those staying with family and/or friends, backpackers, locally based expats, all of whom just want a ticket with the Barmy Army at each match.
Discussion took place in December last year between Barmy Army reps and Cricket Australia officials based in London with the England’s fans highlighting the huge number of Barmy Army supporters who all grouped together on the past two tours in both defeat and victory, and how only a small percentage of these had traveled from the UK on official packages.
Other points raised were that the majority of traveling fans would attend for all five days regardless of the source of tickets, that this was not an issue in tours to other nations and that English sporting culture is all about sitting together.
In fairness to Cricket Australia they listened to all of the points that we raised but were non-committal about whether they would change their policy towards us.
What was concluded from the discussion was that no tickets will go on general sale until June or July in Australia and no decision will be taken until much nearer that time as to whether they will offer a ticket only package to England fans.
So now England’s fans are stuck in a sort of sporting limbo, either cough up for the overpriced tour or get in on the early bargains and book flights and accommodation now, praying that either Cricket Australia change their policy or they get lucky with general sale tickets.
Traveling and supporting your team really shouldn’t be this hard, let alone booking a holiday and administrators taking advantage of fans loyalty is really just not cricket.
EDITOR’S NOTE – Cricket Australia have provided the following response to this article:
In response to The Roar article dated 16 April 2013 by contributor ‘Football Pro’;
“Cricket Australia (CA) has an excellent working relationship with the Barmy Army, as it does with the other 12 Licensed Travel Operators in the UK. The Barmy Army is always welcome in Australia and we enjoy their presence at matches in Australia.
“CA runs a fair and balanced travel program, which provides people looking for certainty the opportunity to lock away tickets and accommodation early.
“This includes any UK travellers through licensed operators like the Barmy Army, but also to Australian citizens wanting to travel domestically. This means anyone travelling to the cricket can lock away a package as early as possible knowing that their accommodation and tickets are secured.
“People wanting to travel independently from the UK or anywhere else can book tickets when they go on sale to the general public in June/July (date TBA). All those buying singular tickets are in the same boat, except that CA gives Australian citizens who are Australian Cricket Family (ACF) members a priority opportunity to purchase tickets before the general public sale.
“This is to reward them as part of our broader cricket family and to reward them as loyal Australian cricket goers.
“Those travelling from overseas can purchase single tickets during the general public sale period (or in ACF period if they are a member with an Australian address) along with all other cricket fans.
“This article seems to suggest that UK travellers who want to travel independently should be given priority access to tickets, ahead of Australians which we don’t feel would be fair.”
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