Remaining Ashes tickets swallowed up

Tickets for the eagerly anticipated Ashes series in Australia later this year were snapped up quickly as the remaining seats went on sale to the general public for the first time on Monday.

Seats for the first four days of the third Test in Perth and fifth Test in Sydney sold out in 35 and 40 minutes when ticket agents, telephone and Web site services opened for business at 0900 local time.

The first four days of the second Test at Adelaide took a little longer to be snapped up at two hours, Cricket Australia said in a statement.

Tickets for the opening Test at the Gabba in Brisbane on Nov. 23 will go on sale on Tuesday with the last few seats for the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne released to the general public on Wednesday.

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The majority of tickets were sold earlier this month to members of the Australian Cricket Family, a scheme devised by Cricket Australia that sought to prevent English fans dominating ticket sales after their side won the Ashes for the first time in 18 years in 2005.

Cricket Australia said on Monday there were between 1,700 and 3,500 tickets available per day of Test cricket while there were around 100,000 remaining seats on sale for all international matches including the triangular one-day series against England and New Zealand.

There were also tickets left for the Twenty/20 match to be played between Australia and England at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Jan. 9.