Australian officials counting the cost of early win

MELBOURNE, Dec 28 (Reuters) Australia's three-day rout of England in the fourth Ashes test today is expected to cost local officials more than 3 million Australian dollar (2.34 million dollar) in lost revenue.

England's pitiful batting collapse that saw the match finish has forced Cricket Victoria to refund almost 50,000 pre-sold tickets and any profits they would have made from other walk-up sales.

Almost 90,000 turned up on the first day and more than 75,000 on each of the next two days.

Cricket Victoria chief executive Ken Jacobs told reporters officials were disappointed the match finished so early but the attendances over the first three days had still made it their most lucrative match in a decade.

''It does make it a little difficult, it throws our budget out, but we're fortunate in that we exceeded our budget in the first three days,'' Jacobs said.

''It has still been our biggest test match revenue-wise in the last 10 years, at least.'' ''The overall figure of 244,351 (spectators) is way above our normal total attendance - 180,000-190,000 has been our high point over the last 20 years and this is a great result.'' REUTERS PDS KN1532