Ashes tickets snapped up in hours
England's barmy army
About 40,000 travelled Down Under on the last tour in 2002/3
The latest batch of tickets for the Ashes series were sold out within two hours of going on sale in Australia.

Seats for the first four days of the third Test in Perth and fifth Test in Sydney sold out within 40 minutes.

And the first four days of the second Test in Adelaide took less than two hours for the tickets to be bought.

Tickets for the first Test in Brisbane can be bought from Tuesday and seats for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne are available from Wednesday morning.

The general sale came after a two-week period of exclusive sales to members of the so-called Australian Cricket Family (ACF).

Those sales generated complaints from fans who claimed the way tickets were being distributed was favouring touts who were offering tickets at hugely inflated prices on the internet.


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Cricket Australia responded by reducing the ticket cap per customer from 10 to four.

CA also introduced staggered release dates across the country.

England fans had to stay up late to try and secure tickets by telephone and online booking.

Barmy Army leader Paul Burnham expects huge numbers of England fans to flock to Australia even though they might not have tickets for this winter's Ashes.

Burnham told the BBC: "People will head over to Australia anyway - with the big stadia they have they will fancy their chances of getting in.

"And you're watching in the same time zone with the sun on your back."

Tickets for Brisbane go on sale from Tuesday and Melbourne from Wednesday.

There were plenty of tickets still available for the Twenty20 game featuring England and Australia at Sydney on 9 January and matches in the triangular one-day series, which also involves New Zealand.

Burnham added: "We had between 25-40,000 there last time when England were getting thrashed but, with the success they had winning the Ashes last year, demand has gone up.

"A lot of England fans have been planning this trip for three to four years. People have planned holidays and are upset.

"Cricket Australia are spinning a line that the Barmy Army have managed to pick up a lot more tickets than we have because Australian fans are not going to get in the numbers they normally do.

"In reality we know corporates and sponsors are picking up tickets by the hatful."

Source: BBC News