SYDNEY, Nov 17: Australia on Friday launched a major drive to woo British travellers Down Under, saying that a flood of more than 40,000 cricket fans heading to the Ashes provided an untapped tourism treasure chest.

The government and cricket chiefs announced a study to asses the impact of the “Barmy Army's” invasion on Australia's economy as well as an ad campaign fronted by cricket rivals Shane Warne and former England spinner Phil Tufnell.

“The Ashes will attract more than 40,000 British tourists to Australia, injecting millions of dollars into our economy,” said Tourism Minister Fran Bailey and Cricket Australia chief executive officer James Sutherland.

“But we believe the contribution of cricket events such as the Ashes is not accurately known, which is why we are jointly funding this study,” they said in a statement.

In addition to the pan to get a fix on the Ashes series' exact monetary payoff, the government also launched an Internet advertising campaign at the Melbourne Cricket Ground designed to attract tourists to Australia for the biennial cricketing bonanza, even though most Test tickets have been sold.

The 180 million-dollar (138 million US) campaign features good-natured Ashes rivalry between spin king Warne and former Tufnell, who is warned by Warne that he should prepare to eat “humble pie”.

“I have even booked you into a nice little restaurant so you can eat your words. I have saved you a slice of humble pie. Somewhere to drown your sorrows, and I have organised some sympathetic shoulders for you to cry on,” Warne says.

Tufnell replies: ”You shouldn't be bloody worried about where the bloody hell I am, you should be worrying about how the bloody hell you are going to win those Ashes back.” Bailey said the advertisement would spread “virally” by people downloading it and distributing it via email and said she was not concerned about using Warne as the face of Australian tourism.

Warne was once banned from playing for taking a banned substance and has been accused of sending lewd text messages to women.

Bailey said she did not know how much the new advertising campaign would cost or how much Warne was paid.

The tourism industry was worth 75 billion dollars (57 billion US) to Australia and employed 500,000 people, she said. —AFP