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Why are local one-day cricket crowds so low?

18th January, 2011
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Roar Guru
18th January, 2011
62
2413 Reads

One-day crowds, what’s up with them? How could one not notice the vacant stands staring at us from the MCG. Not the usual thing from the only city in Australia where people are perhaps a little too obsessed with sport.

It is an odd situation, where Test cricket pulls crowds and the limited over varieties – yes, even the famed Twenty20 – are below par.

Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?

It is in most parts of the world where Test cricket pulls dismal crowds. Test cricket is fodder for commentators and a few tragics only. But come the limited over variety, crowds gather.

There is perhaps only one well-attended Test encounter left in the world – the Ashes. This contest seems to hold some mystical ability to attract actual people. The fable about the little urn containing cremated wood is proving attractive to the human imagination.

This Ashes attendance allowed Richie Benaud – in his rather odd self-assured demeanor – to ridicule some journalists who suggested public interest with cricket may be in decline – Richie using the Ashes to rest his case, ignoring the worldwide trend.

I once met someone at Gallipoli who was ex-clergy and hypothesised that Australians are replacing religion with a new mythology – Gallipoli and Anzac day. Humans need some mythology, something greater, to believe in and it’s either one thing or another he said. Interesting guy.

I would put the Ashes with its attached fable in that bag as well.

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It seems to have had a re-birthing in recent years, just like Anzac Day. Australians now have an almost livid national pride, a love of our military history and a two-century enduring love/hate obsession with Poms, where the Ashes fits in nicely.

My hypothesis to the empty one-day stands is the interest in the Ashes. I myself got quite into it – it was good to have an interesting Test series in Australia for the first time since the early nineties.

The constant rain keeping me house bound, the leg of ham just sitting there mocking me, the endless bowls of trifle just appearing in the fridge, mother constantly cleaning after me, no access to the internet, Australia losing badly, all helped the perpetual TV watching.

But still it was intriguing cricket, even though at times I felt a bit freaky watching every ball of a Test match while being brainwashed by the repetitious propaganda between overs that KFC and AAMI insurance are awesome things.

Now I feel a little worn out.

One-day cricket seems irrelevant. I almost feel like calling it pyjama cricket, like the old recalcitrants used to. I just don’t care about it that much this time around; the real cricket is over. I gave it a go the other day, but I was diverted quickly.

Could it also be because these days with 24-hour sports news, there’s a lot of space to fill so they choose to talk about AFL and rugby league training runs? Who won the lap around the oval race is seemingly newsworthy these days, so sport minds can now be on footy sports earlier.

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I’m more interested in the Asian Cup and watching Liverpool falter in the EPL.

The days of the strict winter footy/summer cricket divide is not as strong as it once was.

But in any case, it was pleasing to see Test cricket, this year at least, hold its rightful place as the pinnacle of the summer. Even if it is against the trend of the rest of the world, which is deeply concerning to a sports conservative like me.

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