found some more from 2007

http://www.sportstats.com.au/blognov06tomar07.html

“….Comparing totals over four-year Ashes cycles, the last four years has been the best-attended in Australian cricket history, with 2.33 million coming to the Tests, surpassing the 2.21 million from 1973/74 to 1976/77, although the daily averages over the four years were higher in the 1970s….

…….Longer-term trends are very much in Tests favour. Total ODI crowds were more than 50% higher than Tests for much of the 1980s. Tests made a gradual comeback in the 1990s, catching up by the turn of the century, and now the positions are reversed, with Tests soaring more than 50% above ODI crowds in the last five years…….

……..The underlying trend for Tests has been relentlessly upward since 1990, while ODIs have been falling since 1999……………”

In Moneyball they are wary of intuition

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1301.Moneyball_The_Art_of_Winning_an_Unfair_Game

“There was, for starters, the tendency of everyone who actually played the game to generalize wildly from his own experience. People always thought their own experience was typical when it wasn’t.”

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/402742.html?comments=all

“If a stump falls and no one is around to write about it, does it mean Australia must be playing Pakistan”

I hope to meet you one day, however I’ll be down the south coast over New Year, then back at work on the 2nd. I still have to organise a coffee/chat with Spiro!

I hope they put up a fight, the worrying thing is I think this will harm Aus, many don’t expect Pakistan to be a challenge but after cruising by the Windies, Pakistan might just come out and cause a few upsets.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,26414571-5018870,00.html

Will be interesting to see how the crowds pan out for the rest of the summer. Im expecting some pretty dismal numbers.

As much as people like to see your team win, people also want to see a contest. West Indies dont provide it.

Mark Waugh is the one cricketer in the last 20 years that I would have paid to see, Id have been happy to pay full price and only watch his innings and leave afterwards. That is what cricket lacks nowadays, you pay to see a bunch of over-coached batsman facing mediocre (in comparison with their predecessors) bowlers on billiard tables, it’s not a contest and there is no beauty.

Warne and McGrath, on their day, I would have also paid to see, who wouldnt pay to get in to see them tear a team apart but far too often the pitches were against them, it was “sad” to see Warne take 1 or 2/150 odd on occasions, he was a far better bowler than that but with pitches so batsman-friendly it happened, hence only ME Waugh would have gotten my money, he was the one guy who could have drawn me to the game every time.

A Mark Waugh innings of 10 was more exciting than a Steven Waugh innings of 100.

Lara and Tendulkar at the start of their careers but they changed too much into efficient run-makers over time, Tendulkar’s 175 was more the exception than the standard for him nowadays.

Clive Lloyd’s 1984 Windies were one of the truly great teams – Greenidge, Haynes, Richardson, Richards, Gomes, Lloyd(c), Dujon(k), Marshall, Holding, Garner, Walsh, Harper(12th). From the 1981 team Roberts had been replaced by Marshall & Croft by Walsh.

But the Aussie team was quite terrible, & in free-fall after the retirement of the ‘holy trinity’ – G.Chappell, R,Marsh & Lillee.

Aussies do like to see the best, but only if their own team is competitive. At least, that is how I see it.

Moneyball is an interesting book. Haven’t read it, but have read various blurbs related to the story of the Oakland Raiders, I think it was?

Stats are valuable, but my problem with stats is that you shouldn’t let them takeover your intuitive feel for things. Of course, not everyone has the same level of intuition, but if you’re someone who trusts your intuition, you shouldn’t let stats rule your thinking.

Talking about the old days adn Surf lifesaving, one thing that has changed is their used to be more competition for cricket. Surf lifesaving was huge with the Kellogg’s and nutra grain comps. There was the NBL, tennis and golf used to have tournaments every week. Once upon a time even baseball was bigger and people would even know who had won the Claxton shield. That all gone now and cricket pretty much has the summer to its self nowadays

like this one saying that last years boxing day test had the highest third-day attendance for a Boxing Day Test match at the MCG that did not involve England.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/cricket/thirdday-crowd-gets-test-attendance-back-on-track/2008/12/28/1230399046692.html

Attendance figures for cricket could be a lot more comprehensive on the net though.

It would help because basing analysis just on peoples memories is not that reliable.

Are you on some kind of crusade?

Crowds can be up & done for all sorts of reasons. Back in 1981/82, there was still residual ill-feeling left-over from WSC, from players to administrators to fans. It flared up again with the rebel tours to SA in the mid-80s.

It probably wasn’t until the early 90s that the bad-feeling was finally put to bed. Also, I was into surf carnivals back then, along with thousands of other young kids & adults. You could walk up & down any beach holding a surf carnival on a Saturday of a test match, & almost every radio was tuned into the cricket?

So I think you need more criteria than just crowds to determine a sports health.

Where do you get your crowd figures?

I also agree with you that players are better behaved. I have always said England and Australia have a Tradition of Test Cricket. Duneidin had 6000 plus yesterday. Again the cricket was good.

I am not going to jump to conclusions but I remain convinced more needs to be done in the biggest market of all. If more than 70% of all revenue is generated in India it makes sense to preserve and enhance the appeal of Tests in the biggest market.

When the West indies last played on at boxing day in 2000/01, when they were 3-0 down in the series, 73 233
turned up

If your going to reappraise test cricket every week your going to do your head in, its 132 years old.

Look at the last ten years

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/433868.html

“The decade of entertainment
There’s been plenty to moan about in the 2000s, but the cricket itself has been mostly exciting, less draw-prone, and more unpredictable…………”

http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/team/6.html?class=1;template=results;type=team;view=results

England were hopeless 15 years ago. they have just now won the ashes.

Australia is ranked 4th in test cricketers so there are a least three other countries higher than them who take it seriously.

Australia is number one in one dayers
.

AND as to over rates – the penalties were upped recently.
The captain of the bowling team can now be suspended from playing. There was an article here, but I cant find it, talking about this.

The problem with the harsh penalties for over rates is that it is eliminating fast bowling. We saw at the gabba the ridiculous introduction by the Windies of a spinner in the second session on the first day. I argue, subjectively of course, that fast bowling is much more entertaining than spin bowling.

With the other endless restraints on bowling we are not far from replacing bowlers with bowling machines. We should meet the over rates then!

England rarely plays any test not in fornt of packed crowds. English test crowds were not like that in the 60.s, 70’s and 80’s

I agree Lillee was the best bowler I have ever seen..

The match that does spring to mind is not a test but a match between Old & WA… I think WA got 72 runs the match was over. Lillle bowled out OLD and at one stage had Old 5 for 10 and he had taken 4 …