England's Test match grounds are being bombarded with applications from supporters wanting to see if England can continue their new-found success against Pakistan and Australia in the summer.

Demand for the games – particularly the Ashes series – is unprecedented. The first four days at The Oval are sold out, the first three days are fully booked at Trent Bridge and twice as many tickets as usual have been sold at Headingley.

The huge demand is delighting the game's administrators. Andrew Walpole, Media Relations Officer at the ECB, said: "England's performances in Pakistan and against the West Indies last summer have clearly captured the public's imagination.

"Pakistan and Australia are two of the world's best sides and include first-class players, and the public are responding to this. I know all the England players will relish performing in front of capacity crowds."

The Oval will be staging the last Test of the Ashes series, on 23-27 August. Ticket office manager Jason Callaghan said: "The first three days are sold out and basically the Sunday is sold out too but we've yet to process all the post for the Sunday. The first three days were sold out in the first week of booking in November.

"By the time the match comes round in August we will have received something like 100,000 applications for a ground with a capacity of 18,500. If the capacity of The Oval had been 60,000, it would still not have been big enough.

"I think a combination of England playing well and the fact that the opposition is Australia is the reason."

At Trent Bridge, which will play host to the Australians on 2-6 August, the first three days are sold out and three-quarters of the tickets have gone for the Sunday.

Nottinghamshire chief executive David Collier is expecting a large number of Australians among the crowd because the county has linked up with the British Tourism Authority and Nottingham Tourism Centre to market the match Down Under.

He said: "About a year ago the Tourism Minister Janet Anderson and the Sports Minister Kate Hoey got together and tried to find some means of bringing tourism and sport together because sport is a great crowd puller, so we have been at the lead of that initiative."

The match also coincides with Nottingham's Riverside Festival and this has also formed part of Trent Bridge's marketing strategy.

Headingley will stage the Fourth Test against Australia on 16-20 August. Ticket office manager Philip Schofield said: "Tickets are going much faster than ever before. We have sold more than twice as many as normal for this time of year.

"We still have availability for every day but on the Friday, there are only seats available in the West Stand.

"I think the popularity is down to the opposition, although it does help that England have done well recently."

The summer's international matches begin at Lord's with the First Test against Pakistan on 17-21 May and continue there with the Second Test against Australia on 19-23 July.

Laura Garland, communications officer at Lord's, said: "We will not know for sure how many applications we have until the closing date of our ballot, which is on February 2nd, but we are anticipating that it will be a very popular year, particularly for Australia."

Edgbaston will stage the opening game in the Ashes series on 5-9 July and secretary Keith Cook reports that ticket sales are remarkably buoyant. "We are fast approaching sell-out for the Friday and Saturday and we are very optimistic that we will sell out before the match starts. It will almost be a case of where can we find more seats from.

"The England team's performance in Pakistan is obviously having a great effect."

Old Trafford is the only Test ground not to entertain the Australians this summer. Instead Pakistan will visit Lancashire's HQ for the Second Test on 31 May-4 June.

But interest is nevertheless high and so far some 10,000 tickets have been sold. "That is good for this time of year," said chief executive Jim Cumbes. "I am very pleased with that figure."

© CricInfo Ltd.