Kate White looks at the Test matches which attracted the biggest crowds of all time.
Last Boxing Day, 94,199 thronged into the MCG; 24 hours later, another 92,045 watched as England wrapped up a four-wicket win inside six sessions: these were the two highest attendances for a Test in Australia. On what would have been the third day, groundsman Matt Page faced the media to explain why there had been 10mm of grass on a pitch judged “unsatisfactory” by the match referee, leaving fans disappointed and Cricket Australia staring at an estimated loss of $A25m.
A year earlier, 201,302 had seen the last three days of the Test against India, contributing to an Australian record attendance of 373,691. Had the Ashes fixture gone the distance, it might have surpassed it. But could it have challenged 465,000 – the world record Test attendance?
The match which holds that record was a tale of two extremes. Around 100,000 are thought to have watched each of the first four days, and an estimated 65,000 were let in for the fifth – yet the finale was played out to silence, in a near empty ground.
It was February 1999, and Pakistan were in India for the first Test series between the two nations for nine years, and the first on Indian soil since 1986-87. A three-Test series had been planned, but when the idea of an Asian Championship became reality, the third Test in Calcutta became that tournament’s inaugural game. Three previous attempts to organise a Pakistani tour of India in the 1990s had been aborted because of threatened disruption by Hindu fundamentalists, and the build-up to the series was not without controversy. Activists dug up the pitch in Delhi shortly before the Pakistanis arrived in January, forcing a change of venue, and the BCCI’s offices in Mumbai were ransacked. The board even engaged snake charmers, amid rumours that extremists might release snakes in the crowds or on to the pitch.
After all the build-up, the first two Tests passed without trouble, Pakistan narrowly winning in Chennai, and India striking back emphatically in Delhi. And when trouble did emerge in Calcutta, it was not political.
No official attendance figures were issued, but for the first four days the ground was full. Then came the riots. The first, on the fourth afternoon, began when Sachin Tendulkar was run out. He had just taken two runs and was returning for a third when Nadeem Khan hit the stumps from deep midwicket. Tendulkar collided with Shoaib Akhtar, who was waiting for the throw, and didn’t ground his bat. After the third umpire ruled him out, angry spectators began to throw bottles and rubbish at the Pakistanis, and play had to be stopped for more than an hour, with Tendulkar and ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya appealing for calm. Two batters departed soon after the resumption and, by the close, India needed 65, with four wickets in hand.
Shoaib and Wasim Akram quickly took three next morning, leaving India, chasing 279, on the brink at 231 for nine. Spectators started burning newspapers in the stands and hurled stones, fruit and bottles on to the field. The match was held up for three hours as 65,000 people were forcibly removed from the ground. In front of a few officials, VIPs, journalists and police, Pakistan needed just ten balls to take the final wicket. The crowd’s anger had been concentrated on Tendulkar’s run-out, but there was little real malice in it. The only injury came when a member of groundstaff was hit on the ankle by a stone, and there was no violence outside the ground.
The second-highest Test attendance (373,691) was that Boxing Day Test at Melbourne in 2024, when Australia beat India by 184 runs. The series was 1–1 going into the Fourth Test, and Australia went on to win 3–1, the first time they had won a home series from 1–0 down since 1968-69.
Wisden 2025 called it “one of the most extraordinary Tests of modern times”, concluding at 5.23 on the final day after 405 overs, and attracting record crowds and television audiences. Steve Smith scored his 34th Test century, and Nitish Kumar Reddy his first, while Jasprit Bumrah took nine wickets. Pat Cummins won the match award for his six for 117, and innings of 49 and 41. On the final day, India only had a draw to play for, but tickets were $10 each, with proceeds going to charity. A single bay had been set aside for potential takers, but the queues lengthened, and one bay after another was opened until the ground was almost full. By noon, the Australian crowd record had been broken.
“It’s probably the best Test match I’ve been involved in,” said Cummins. “It felt like it swung a lot – we never felt like we were so far ahead of the game that it looked certain.”
Melbourne also hosted the third-best attended Test, beginning on January 1, 1937. England had won the first two matches, but such was the faith in Don Bradman’s Australia that huge crowds turned out for the third.
It was the first time in Test history that both sides declared their first innings: rain had made batting a tricky business. “The difficulties of the wicket quickly became apparent, and batsmen experienced such an unhappy time that in about three hours, 13 wickets fell,” Wisden 1937 said. But the pitch recovered after a Sunday rest, and Australia were leading by 221 when Bradman, suffering from “mild influenza”, played what many regard as the greatest Test innings.
After more than seven hours, he had racked up 270, and added an unparalleled 346 for the sixth wicket with Jack Fingleton. England needed 689 runs. Despite a century from Maurice Leyland, they fell well short: Australia won by 365 runs. “England were not disgraced, even though the margin was a large one,” Wisden concluded.
A total of 350,534 attended over the six days, including 87,798 on the third day alone. Match receipts, according to Wisden, totalled £30,124.
Kate White is Assistant Editor of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.