England venues facing 'worrying' number of empty seats for ODI series against Lanka

A number of venues for England's one-day series against Sri Lanka is reportedly facing a worrying number of empty seats as tickets have been a hard-sell with the exception of Lord's.

The slow sales are thought to have been a factor in the decision to reshape the schedule for 2015, with the two Tests against New Zealand, at Lord's and Headingley, now to be played in May, before the 50-over and Twenty20 fixtures against New Zealand.

According to The Guardian, Durham admits they would be happy if their 15,000-capacity Emirates Riverside ground is two-thirds full for their only international of the summer while both Lancashire and Warwickshire, who stage matches three and five, admit that tickets have been a hard sell, with neither gate likely to reach 15,000.

The report mentioned that there were around 4,000 empty seats at The Oval for the first game of the series on Thursday, although Lord's remains an exception, with the MCC having only a few hundred tickets left in the top-priced category in the Upper Grandstand and is therefore confident of an attendance at or close to the 28,500 capacity.

There is a suspicion that in addition to the negative reaction to England's poor performances in Australia, and the divisive departure of Kevin Pietersen, they may be suffering a backlash from a tendency to rest senior players from ODIs in recent years, the report added.