Fans at Optus Stadium were treated to an all-time T20 innings on Tuesday night as Marcus Stoinis led Australia home in their World Cup clash against Sri Lanka.
Stoinis’ innings of 59 not out from 18 balls broke the record of Australia’s quickest T20 half-century and it couldn’t have come at a better time with the home side needing 69 runs from 46 balls as he strode to the crease.
With his knock helping the Aussies chase Sri Lanka’s target of 158 with 21 balls remaining, those in attendance would have been thrilled by the Perth native’s match-winning stint.
While the match will go down in history, only 25,061 fans were there to witness it despite Optus Stadium holding a capacity of 60,000 people.
SEN WA’s Tim Gossage believes the low crowd may have been partly due to hometown hero Justin Langer’s axing as coach.
“It’s fair to say I think the Australian cricket team might be on the nose to those out West,” Gossage said on SEN.
“The Australian cricket team is just a tad on the nose. There are probably some repercussions from the exit of Justin Langer.
“As much as he’s moved on and a big section of the sporting and cricket community has moved on, there’s probably a level of people whose care factor has diminished somewhat with the Australian team.
“They might be waiting for the bigger games, they might be waiting for Friday against England at the MCG.
“But 25,000 is disappointing and it (was) certainly a make-or-break game.”
While Gossage believes the West Australian public will eventually fully embrace the team again, he feels it may take some time for fans to warm to the side once more.
“Time, it’s just going to take time,” Gossage said.
“(Cameron) Green and (Mitch) Marsh, to a lesser extent (Ashton) Agar and maybe (Jhye) Richardson in Test matches, there has to be a WA flavour again.
“Green is very popular over here, Agar is popular but not to the same level as Green who is the poster boy and everyone loves Marsh.
“But we’re one-eyed, there’s absolutely no doubt and Justin Langer, who is a walking, talking cricket god over here in WA (that locals think he) was treated badly.
“There is just a whiff over the Australian cricket team at the moment.”
Perth next plays host to the Pakistan v Zimbabwe Super 12 clash which begins at 10 pm on Thursday night (AEDT).