Global financial crisis hits ‘Barmy Army’ ahead of Ashes

SYDNEY - England’s boisterous ‘Barmy Army’ may just not make it to Australia to witness this year’s Ashes series, as it appears to be cash stripped.

CA spokesman Peter Young said that thousands of tickets reserved for tourists might be reallocated to locals as the numbers might be well down than the 40,000 English fans who visited during the 2006-07 Ashes.

“The particular impact of the global financial crisis - which some economists are calling the North Atlantic financial crisis because of the impact in that part of the world - has affected the Barmy Army demographic, which has a high number of white collar professionals in its membership,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Young, as saying.

“We will be doing a review in mid-November and it is possible that some of the tickets allocated to inbound tourism that are returned to the Cricket Australia travel office are put back onto the market to become available to the Australian public,” he added.

However, Barmy Army co-founder David Peacock said that the organization expected to sell about 1000 tour packages, but felt early positive results for England could lead to a rush of traveling fans.

“If England are in a strong position we are expecting huge numbers to make last-minute bookings to get to the MCG and SCG, as they are willing to pay the increased costs to hopefully see the first victory on Australian soil since 1986-87,” Peacock said.

“You may recall how hundreds of England fans made last-minute bookings to get over to the Rugby World Cup final at huge expense. For us to win the Ashes in Oz would create similar fervour,” he added. (ANI)