Cricket’s oldest international rivalry resumed last week in Australia without a traditional taunt of traveling English fans: “We’re fat, we’re round, three dollars to the pound.”
The Australian dollar, the -second-best performer among 16 major currencies this year, has soared 55 percent against the pound since the teams last battled for the Ashes on Australian soil, making everything from the price of hotel rooms to meals more expensive for England’s so-called Barmy Army of fans.
The dollar chant “won’t be coming out of the songbook this time,” Barmy Army spokeswoman Becky Fairlie-Clarke said in a telephone interview. “It’s more like one-and-a-half [dollars] now.”
Photo: AFP
The slump in visitors’ purchasing power is reducing the benefit of the six-week contest for the local economy. The 2006 to 2007 series in Australia generated A$265 million (US$256 million) in incremental direct expenditure, according to a URS Corp report, as 37,000 fans came from Britain. That may fall to less than 20,000 this time and those that have come aren’t leaving as many dollars behind, said Andrew McEvoy, managing director of government agency Tourism Australia.
At the start of the 2006 to 2007 series, when Australia romped to a 5-0 series sweep, £500 would have bought a British tourist A$1,250, according to Travelex Ltd. The same amount is worth about A$806 now. Four years earlier, during England’s 2002 to 2003 Ashes tour, fans were on average getting A$2.86 a pound.
One cricket fan watching his wallet as much as the contest between bat and ball this time is Andy Clark, editor of England cricket fanzine Corridor of Uncertainty. Clark’s latest editorial begins by asking readers whether they’re shocked at the “measly amount” of Australian dollars they’re getting.
“It’s very expensive,” Clark, 41, said outside Brisbane’s Gabba stadium, which hosted the first match. “The cheapest pint of beer you can get is about £4.50, which is too much. I made two pints last about three hours the other night.”
Clark said he’s having to “scrimp and save a bit” to get to the five Test matches that are scheduled to -conclude Jan. 7 in Sydney. He stayed with a friend in Brisbane and will do the same for Melbourne. He hired a campervan with some friends to get to the matches in Adelaide and Perth to help save costs. Backpacker hostels, rather than three or four star hotels, are the preferred accommodation, he said.
The UK is Australia’s second-largest source of tourists, trailing New Zealand, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. In September, 51,800 short-term visitors arrived from the UK, according to the most recent government data.
The previous Ashes series provided a spike in visits, with 76,600 arriving from the UK in December 2006, compared with 60,000 arrivals in the same month a year earlier. The next year, when the tournament wasn’t played, arrivals fell to 55,800.
The Barmy Army, a semi-organized group of cricket fans whose songs provide the soundtrack to England’s overseas tours, is smaller than four years ago. About half as many tour packages have been sold through the group’s official Web site, Clarke said.
That didn’t stop choruses of Rule Britannia and God Save Your Gracious Queen on the final day of the series opener this week as England hit a record second-innings 517-1 to force a draw at the Gabba, where Australia is unbeaten since 1988.
Home captain Ricky Ponting said it felt like playing in London.
“I forgot where I was,” he told reporters. “It was like being back at The Oval.”
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