British Rules

At 9 am on 1 June, when tickets for this summer's Ashes Test series went on sale, Cricket Australia's offices in Jolimont, near the Melbourne Cricket Ground, were deceptively quiet. It was then noticed that the website was paralysed, as if by an electric shock. Next, those who were trying to buy tickets online found themselves confounded. Finally, phones started to ring: the tsunami of demand had flattened ticket agencies in its path. By the time it receded, a few days later, the wave had taken with it virtually every ticket for all five Tests. The same number could probably have been sold again.