- A chat with the man behind Australian Cricket Tours
On the eve of Sri Lanka’s biggest defeat in Test Cricket history in Galle last week, The Daily Morning team caught up with a man who has been admired throughout the sporting world for his cricketing wanderlust with the baggy greens – Australia. Luke 'sparrow' Gillian and his charming battalion of 175 cricket-crazy Aussies clad in their iconic floral shirts are a sight to behold if you’re in Galle or its Old Town and fortifications – the UNESCO World Heritage.
Let’s dive deep with Luke the ‘Sparrow’ who walks us through on how he fell in love with the game, travelling the world, Galle, Sri Lanka then and now as well as what the future holds for this wanderer.
Following are the excerpts from the interview:
Luke, what’s ACT-Australian Cricket Tours all about?
That's my entity that I started in 2001 and the Internet opened up the world. After six years of travel, people were able to contact me and say, “I want to do what you do.” So I did it. I built a website and invited people to join me in India, 2001. And here we are, taking a hundred people to India back then. And then now here we are. This is my sixth tour to Sri Lanka. I’ve taken more than a thousand people around the world to watch Australia play. If no one comes with me, it doesn't matter. I'm still going to be there. This is my 235th Australian Test.
How did it all start? Tell us about how you fell in love with this game?
I grew up in Melbourne, Eastern suburbs and grew up in an age where mom and dad allowed me to go to the cricket on my own from age 8-10. And that was it. They gave me money for a train, to go into the MCG, watch the test match, and then come home again. Sometimes I take my brothers and sisters with me or mates from school. Later I would travel interstate from the age of 13, take a bus to Sydney and go and stay with my aunt. I go and watch cricket over summer holidays through school, and even during high school. I recall the first ODI under lights in Melbourne was played on 17 February 1985. And I remember I went around to all my classmates repeatedly saying “who wants to go to the first day-night”, I got about 30 guys from school.
So that was really my first foray into getting match tickets for people and taking them to the game. I was 15. And then the Cricket World Cup final in 1992, I ran up to some old schoolmates and friends in the neighborhood and still managed to get about 30 guys together. Got match tickets, rang up a ticketing agent, organised 30 match tickets for everyone, and we all went on to the World Cup final. I had no idea back then that it would probably lay the foundation for what I'm doing now, but what I'm doing now is not deliberate. I just wanted to go. I went to the West Indies in 1995, half an hour into the game in Barbados I thought wow I could do a bit more of this and then came the ‘96 World Cup in India, ‘97 South Africa and Ashes, ‘98 India-Pakistan, and ‘99 big year of the West Indies and Cricket World Cup and first my tour of Sri Lanka. Then Zimbabwe and New Zealand in 2000, by then I had covered every test Nation in the world. And then Bangladesh got test status in June of 2000. Oh, right then I’ve got to Bangladesh.
After 2000, the internet boomed and people could easily contact me and access my contact details. No such thing as privacy laws back then. And here we are now, taking people around the world doing what I do. That's what they wanted.
25 years after your first tour, where do you see Sri Lanka? Now, then and the future?
Well, Sri Lanka hasn't changed a great deal, I think I'm still taking the public buses up from Galle Road that I caught in 1999, a few new buses perhaps. The Galle Stadium has changed only a little bit since the tsunami. The municipality stand wasn't here, it was just an embankment.
If, dare I say, this (Galle) should be the most beautiful ground in world cricket and it's just not. Unfortunately, facilities are poor, especially the hot stinking municipality stand and its derelict washrooms. And if I dare say, gosh, overpriced match tickets. Do you know, two and a half years ago, to sit in the municipality stand was a thousand rupees per day. Today it's now 10,000 rupees.
It's more expensive to go to the cricket in Galle than it is in Melbourne. For general admission it’s 30 Australian Dollars (AUD) per day there and it's costing us 55 AUD a day here. Many would say that we are wealthy tourists and one that's not the point. Even Sri Lankans have to pay the same as well to come and sit in the municipality stand or to sit in an A/C marquee (Rs. 12,500 per day) or you can pay Rs. 500 to sit on the grassy banks. This is bizarre. It's just going to the other extreme, which is really disappointing considering the facilities here. Hopefully the authorities here will be reinvesting something into making this a little more comfortable for everybody.
What’s next with ACT and you?
Well, we are off to the West Indies in June/July celebrating 30 years since my first Windies tour. I've got more than 900 people booked to go to the islands, which will be our first West Indies cricket tour in 10 years. And that's why a lot of people want to go. The West Indies beat us in Brisbane a year ago, which was spectacular. And so now we're playing three test matches instead of two so the Windies do have a chance of winning the Frank Worrell Trophy for the first time since 1995, you know, it'd be a nice fitting if 30 years later that they almost get to win back. Maybe.
In 2026 we are off to South Africa in September/October. In 2027 India, five test matches in January/February, 2027, the Ashes and It just gets going on. I Just love watching cricket around the world.
What are some memorable moments that you’ll never forget during 3 decades of touring?
India beating Australia in Calcutta in 2001, after we asked them to follow on, they (India) were 274 runs behind and made 657 in the second inning and then bowled us out. They won by 177, just an unbelievable turnaround. And Cape Town 2014 when South Africa were batting at day five for the draw we're going to win it but just couldn't get the last two wickets with just five overs left.
Our mate Ryan Harris was brought on with two broken legs, came on steaming, we got the last two wickets and yeah, it was a spectacular victory coming from behind.
On my 200th Australian test match at Lords in 2019 and I was lauded by the Australian cricket team by being Invited into the dressing room at Lords two days before the test match, celebrated with cakes, an embroidered match shirt signed by the cricket team and then had match tickets for five Ashes test matches and stayed with the team across the series in the hotel. Looked after very well, I can't forget that. Absolutely not, you know, 200 test matches, wow. I left home thinking I'll go to the West Indies and go back home and continue work as a chef, which is my profession. But now here I am, test match 235 and 236 here in Sri Lanka.
Finally, what is your message to all the Sri Lankan fans to spread the love of cricket and travelling?
If you want to go, go! You never know when your opportunity is going to be lost and taken away from you. Fate gets in the way, life gets in your way. You know it's not as affordable, perhaps for many Sri Lankans. I appreciate those who go where they want to go. But even nipping across to India to watch a test match. If you want to go and watch your team play, focus on it. I left in 1991, I decided in 1995 that I'll go to the West Indies. And so I saved and scrimped and put the money aside and then in January 1995 went to the West Indies. And just followed through with that. Set yourself a goal. If you set yourself a goal, like anything in life, 3,4 or 5 years down the line, if you want to go and see Sri Lanka play in the West Indies, England or Australia, find out when it is and go and do it. Because when you don't go, many people later regret and wish they went. They always do.
Meanwhile the second Test of the Warne-Muralitharan series will be battled out from 6-10 of this month at the Galle International Cricket Stadium. The two match ODI series will be played at Colombo’s R. Premadasa Stadium on 12 and 14 February starting at 10 a.m. as day games.