Ticket prices back in spotlight as England seal series in front of empty seats

It should have been a crowning moment on this sun-soaked Sunday afternoon in north-west London. Olly Stone backpedalled from mid-on to settle underneath a catch off Chris Woakes' bowling, clinching England's fifth consecutive Test win and their second series win of the summer.

And yet, England's players celebrated this 190-run victory over Sri Lanka in front of a swathe of empty seats. This was not a sign of Test cricket's decline, but a retort from fans to the administrators who have spent years taking them for granted: with a starting price of £95, thousands upon thousands of tickets for the fourth day of the Lord's Test went unsold.

"It was kind of weird," said Ollie Pope, England's stand-in captain. "A few of us have been strolling in each day, and we were like, 'Jeez, it seems quiet today.' I'm not sure if people expected the game to be done by day four or what… It's a shame it wasn't a full house: it was obviously a good day's play where we had to work hard for those eight wickets."

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) were braced for a low crowd and estimated that around 9,000 people turned up to a venue that holds more than 30,000. The club committed to a review of fourth-day pricing while chief executive Guy Lavender cited England's dominant win against West Indies at Lord's in July - which took barely seven sessions - as a contributing factor.

It is a paradox of Bazball: by accelerating the pace of Test matches, as part of a bid to make the format as attractive to fans as they can, England have inadvertently dented ticket sales for the fourth and fifth days. Twice in five Tests this summer, they have completed victory by mid-afternoon on the third day; the other three have all finished on the fourth day.

And, on the rare occasions in the Bazball era when matches have gone to day five, the gates have invariably been thrown open for free, albeit with an enthusiastic take-up. This was most famously the case at Trent Bridge in 2022, when a final-day full house roared Jonny Bairstow to a heady, agenda-settting hundred against New Zealand.

Pope suggested that the low turnout might owe to the "heavy schedule" this summer "with the Hundred, T20 Blast and a lot of Test matches as well". Asked if England need more support from administrators, he said: "It's not really for me to comment on… [but] it is great to have as many kids and families in as possible, and learning to love the game."

No matter England's stated aims, the vagaries of the format can still leave fans short-changed. "We pride ourselves on wanting people to come into the ground and feel like they've had a really enjoyable day of cricket," Joe Root said on Saturday - shortly after Pope had declined to bowl spinners in tandem under floodlights, thereby bringing the third day to a premature close.

Lavender defended MCC's reluctance to cut prices at short notice in a statement issued on Saturday. "It is difficult to dynamically discount tickets in hindsight when thousands of supporters have applied through our 2023 ballot process and paid the full price…" he said. "We will be paying particular attention to the structure of fourth-day tickets in our pricing reviews, given the way that Test cricket is now being played."

Even MCC's attempts to make amends ended up backfiring. Prices were cut to £15 for adults and £5 for Under-16s from 3.45pm, but the discount was not advertised to the public ahead of time. As a result, there was no notable change in the size of the crowd in the final session.

The club often make pronouncements about their concern for Test cricket's future, most recently at president Mark Nicholas' inaugural 'World Cricket Connects' forum. Yet by selling tickets for such extortionate sums - the empty seats in the top tier of the Grand Stand on Sunday were priced at £140 each - MCC are directly contributing to the sense of a format in decline.

It is not as if MCC is desperate for money. The club reported a pre-tax operating surplus of £8.8 million last year, and will imminently be given a 51% stake in London Spirit by the ECB with an estimated value in the region of £60 million. Regardless, lower ticket prices may have ended up bringing in more revenue through fans' matchday spending around Lord's.

Two weeks ago, Lord's staged the Hundred final in front of crowds of 22,009 (women's) and 28,860 (men's) - both significantly more than watched England complete their win on Sunday. But it would be disingenuous to suggest the difference is a reflection of supporters' preference: tickets for the Hundred were priced at barely one-third of those for the fourth day of the Test.

Test cricket remains hugely popular in England: Sunday's low turnout was something of an anomaly in a summer of strong ticket sales, despite low-ranked opponents in West Indies and Sri Lanka. When India arrive for a five-match series next summer, tickets will sell out even at premium prices.

This is not a unique problem to Lord's: there were empty seats in the Party Stand throughout the first Test in Manchester last week, and there are plenty of fourth-day tickets still available at The Oval for the third Test. But Sunday's no-show should send a clear message: if fans feel they are being ripped off, they will vote with their feet.