A familiar face was missing from the biggest-ever crowd for a day of cricket in Australia, with Anika Wells a notable absence from the MCG for the Boxing Day Test in the wake of the recent travel allowances scandal.
Ms Wells did not attend the first day of play at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday, marking the first time she has missed the event since she was handed the portfolio in 2022.
It is understood the sports minister was spending time with family, and it remains unclear if she will attend other days of the match, which is scheduled to run until Tuesday.
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Cricket Australia said a crowd of 94,199 was in attendance when the home side was dismissed around 3pm on Friday, even though the quest for the urn and the outcome of the Ashes has already been decided.
That surpasses the 2015 World Cup final at the same venue between Australia and New Zealand, which drew a crowd of 93,015.
The bumper crowd watched another diabolical England performance.
Australia were sent in to bat on the opening day and were bowled out for 152 before the tea break. But the tourists’ best two sessions of the entire tour were completely wiped out by another shambolic batting effort.
Late on the opening day, England were 9-97 after 25 overs and staring down a significant deficit.
The crowd included around 20,000 travelling England fans, many of whom arrived Down Under for the Christmas period after the Ashes were lost.
In a controversial move, the Barmy Army were given the iconic bay 13 on the first tier of the MCG, normally a stronghold for rowdy Australian fans.
And it looked for a while like like the Poms had properly come to play for the first time since they landed in Perth at the start of November.
England had Australia in trouble by the lunch break, with Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne and Jake Weatherald all falling in the first hour, before Steve Smith was dismissed just before lunch.
But they completely combusted again to finish the day well behind the eight-ball.
It comes as Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg refused to rule out the prospect of the match being played in a day-night timeslot in future, although he confirmed all four Tests against New Zealand next summer would start at the traditional time.
Last year’s match against India — where Sam Konstas stunned the cricket world on Test debut — ran until the final session on day five and drew 373,691 people to the famous ground, the best attended match in Australian history.
A bumper crowd of 87,242 people watched the first day of that match.
Australia’s brief first innings and a lively wicket means a five-day match appears unlikely this time around.
The line for the Melbourne Cricket Club members reserve snaked through Yarra Park in the hours before the match.
The absence of the Federal Sports Minister comes after Ms Wells was embroiled in a travel scandal last month, under fire for her use of taxpayer funds on trips for herself and family, including to attend sporting events.
Dozens of trips — including a night-time birthday function while in Sydney on business and a $100,000 splash on last-minute flights to New York — are being scrutinised by the independent parliamentary expenses watchdog after the Cabinet minister referred herself for an audit.
Ms Wells used family reunion entitlements to travel to the December 26 Test in both 2022 and 2024. She attended the match in 2023 but had only one ticket and did not bill taxpayers for her husband Finn McCarthy to travel.
