There’s nothing easier than whacking away at a soft target, and didn’t our nation’s cricket commentators and observers do exactly that over the five days of the recently completed Hobart test?
I’m talking, of course, about the much-maligned crowd figures and lack of attendance from the Tasmanian public, who, if the vitriol and invective thrown their way is to be taken at face value, should be punished by death, or worse, forced to become a non-contiguous state of New Zealand instead.
And the cracks weren’t just from the cheap seats of the tabloid media either. The muckraking came from, and was in fact was led by, the most venerable cricket writers – Greg Baum and Malcolm Knox from The Age and Peter Lalor from The Australian.
In their respective columns each day we were subject to much cleverness and wit on the topic as they tried to outdo each other with eloquent insults and none-too-subtle put-downs.
I’d like to be able to say the great Gideon Haigh was immune from this disease, but even he couldn’t resist a little barb in some of his daily musings.
The ESPN CricInfo team also thought the Tasmanian public was fair game, and so too the ABC commentators.
It’s hard to say what Channel Nine cheerleaders thought, as they were too busy selling us Ed Cowan candy, Dave Warner watermelon, or asking us to vote for how many blades of grass were on the oval.
Oh, what a hardship it must be to get paid to watch a sport and have their thoughts on the days play broadcast to a vast number of people. A sport, which, based on their passionate and knowledgeable observations, I assume they love.
Twitter was also the source of much browbeating of the Apple Isle, most people whipped into a frenzy by those same journos and their mates.
It wasn’t really debate, because the bully boy approach of Victorians and New South Welshmen didn’t lend itself to such an even term. Melbournians can barely draw breath between announcing they live in the sporting capital of the world, and Sydneysiders are just the best at everything, or so they tell us.
“Give us a second Test!” they demanded. “If they’re not going to show up, take it off them!” they cried.
“How dare they disrespect the grand traditions of Test cricket in this country,” they intoned.
Well, even if the last one was true, Cricket Australia has already beaten them to it.
As a society we are being taught to be outraged by the bleeding obvious.
Tasmania will have supplied the lowest Test match crowds of the summer? From a state with the lowest, by far, population?
What a shock to the system this is! Someone fetch my heart pills and get me a cup of tea! Let me take a day off work to fully comprehend the magnitude of such an occurrence!
I think I watch my share of Test cricket, and yet over the course of the Hobart test I didn’t get to see as much as I like.
I spent Friday at work, and attended the company Christmas party afterwards. Saturday was spent minding my ten-month-old son while my wife went Christmas shopping with her mum.
Saturday afternoon and night was at a friend’s for Christmas dinner. My sister won’t be around on Christmas day, so a roast lunch with our dad was at her house on Sunday to catch up as a family before she goes away.
Monday was spent at work again (damn those responsibilities getting in the way of what I really want to do!), while Tuesday was more of the same followed by another Christmas dinner for my sister, this time with mum.
Sorry to bore you with the mundane details of my life, but it is that most wonderful time of year (you’ll note the word Christmas was mentioned five times in the previous two paragraphs).
Now, my Twitter followers will attest to my love of sport, particularly in the form of AFL and Test cricket, and I’d like to think my Roar readership would too.
Wasn’t a whole lot of time over that five days for cricket, was there? I doubt I was alone in this regard. Not at this time of year.
Never mind the many other factors at play either. There is only so much money to go around for working families at the best of times, and even less so at this time of year.
Yes, we’d all like to budget a bit better, yet there’s always one more present we’d like to buy for that someone special.
$43 for an adult and $118 for a family ticket are nothing to sneeze at.
Any hint of inclement weather will affect crowds in any city, and it’s nonsense to argue otherwise.
Hobart had its share of clouds and rain, enough to put off those inclined to walk-up, and the stop-start nature of play wasn’t in their favour either.
As for those from Melbourne and Sydney, how easy it is to smugly pontificate from the ivory tower of the Boxing Day and New Year’s tests, fixtures set in stone over the holiday period year after year.
Then we get to the hoariest of old chestnuts – per capita.
It’s always amusing how it divides people down one of two lines – if it supports your argument, it’s the most important basis of it, but if it doesn’t, then it’s ridiculed as “lies, damn lies and statistics” and a hundred and one factors are brought into play.
For fun, let’s quickly use this argument anyway. Based on day one crowd figures in Hobart, Melbourne will need to provide a crowd of something like 120,000 on Boxing Day.
What odds on it being half of that? And how many of those that don’t go will be heard to mutter “it’s only Sri Lanka”?
And you Sydney people? You’ll need to provide something north of 130,000 people. Make sure you get there early is all I’ll say, in order to beat that stampede.
But something tells me that this year’s New Year’s hangover might just take a bit longer to wear off. That will be one of the excuses anyway.
The same media laying into the crowd figures were bemoaning the ‘main course’ of South Africa being served before the ‘entrée’ of Sri Lanka, so our Southern neighbours hardly had the pick of the prime feast either.
Now, just in case some of you think that I’m a chip off Tim Lane’s shoulder, I’ve never actually been to Tasmania, and can barely think of anyone I know who is from there.
Of course, I’ll be forever grateful to the state for providing me with Matthew Richardson, my childhood, teen and adulthood hero from the age of 12 to 29.
Maybe the cricket wasn’t entertaining enough for the media at the ground. Perhaps they were suffering a let-down themselves after the engrossing South African series.
Or it might just have been that they were caught up in their own hyperbole and rhetoric after a month on the road covering cricket and, like Peter Siddle after Adelaide, needed a break.
Whatever the reason, those that continued to harp on the crowd figures were doing the people of Hobart and Tasmania a disservice, and were cheapening themselves in the process.
Some of these men are true greats with pen, laptop, or microphone in hand, so it is right to demand more of them.
Bayman
Guest
Atawhai, Did you enjoy the orange paint job? I used to live about 5-10 minutes walk away before relocating to Adelaide.
MrKistic
Guest
It probably rains more often at the Melbourne test than the Hobart test. The price at Hobart is the lowest in the country. Test cricket is still test cricket and Sri Lanka kept us on the field until the last hour. Scheduling: I live in Melbourne and knew when the tests were on in June. I booked flights, accommodation and bought tickets to the ground months ago. And all on the weekend, no time off work required. These are all excuses, and fairly lame ones. Two things are real: the test was on immediately before xmas when people are busy and Hobart's population is in the low hundreds of thousands. Those two factors alone are enough to keep numbers down on other tests around the country.
Kylesy Sky Blues Fan
Guest
They're lucky to get anything. The Socceroos have never even played a proper competitive match in Tasmania, it's high time we give them a decent one!
Timmuh
Roar Guru
Brett, not at all. It is a coocern, but not a "move the game" concern. The 75% and (I felt) general tone was over-stating it, and I think CA are fully aware that Hobart can never draw the crowds of larger cities for all sorts of resons. Regional centres will never get the attendance of a major metro, and Hobart has to rely on good weather forecasts for people to drive from the other end of the state. Canberra, Newcastle, etc aren't answers either. After the novelty wears off, crowds would be little different to Hobart, with the added problem that Tasmanians would then be denied the chance to attend (in most other centres mentioned the opportunity exists to drive to Sydney or Melbourne for a day's play - that option does not exist in Tasmania). And I'm not sure giving Sydney or Melbourne a second Test would do much either. With the drop off on days 4 and 5 at these venues, how many would turn out for effectively days 6 to 10 against lower drawing opposition outside holiday times.
Nev
Guest
dcnz - If you mean ready access, and not expensive: trout fishing, salt water fishing, bush walking, mountain biking, scuba diving, hunting - things you actually go and do - Tassie goes ok, it is one of the the better places for these things. If you mean sitting on your bum and being entertained - yeh we don't have so much. But this is the modern life huh - "I demand to be entertained!" It's far too much effort to go out and do things, much better to watch others. That's cool tho, I would prefer the mainlanders stay away and we Tassie people can keep the simple(r) life. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download it now [http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-roar/id327174726?mt=8].
Atawhai Drive
Guest
Bayman, small crowds or not, Hobart needs to be kept in the loop. I'll be Archie Jackson for a while yet. Drove past his house (14 Ferdinand St, Birchgrove, in Sydney's inner west) a couple of weeks ago. What might have been . . .
Bayman
Guest
Atawhai, Good point about the Catch 22 situation in Hobart. They don't get the attractive teams so respond accordingly. They may well have turned up the first time, even the second and third, but once they see it's "Sri Lanka again"........ Personally, I hope Hobart (or Tassie generally) keeps getting a Test match. Optionally, like you I rather like the idea of England vs Australia A at a nice venue in front of a relatively small crowd. I might go. By the way, are you Archie Jackson this week? How will I recognise you next year?
dcnz
Guest
There are simply too many other entertainment options in Hobart. Its a crowded market clearly.
Brett McKay
Expert
(you keep leaving the door open for me, Timmuh - I can't NOT reply!) Again, I don't disagree with your points, but if I thought the last three or four Hobart Tests have been poorly attended, and you say "Every Test except the first in1989 really", are we really overstating it by discussing it now?
Timmuh
Roar Guru
I don't think anyone can deny that crowds in Hobart have been poor for Tests for quite some time. Every Test except the first in1989 really. I just don't like seeing the case over-stated. Crowds will always be smaller in smaller cities. Tasmania has extra issues where the weather affects things more (and is more likely to have that effect, double whammy there) because Hobart has to rely on people travelling from the state's north, the population is not just small but also poor and with a higher reliance on service and other seven day a week indistries, always getting the weak drawing teams, Bellerive being in a crap location with no parking and no public transport, etc. All of that taken into account, the attendance is still disappointing - and I doubt $20 tickets would fix it much.
John Berry Hobbs
Guest
I believe I've identified the issue. The Bellerive Test doesn't seem to attract the beer-swilling cretins that certain other Oz Tests do. Perhaps it's the more English style climate or the lack of a bland concrete and plastic bowl from which to box in spectators, encourage drinking and thus connect with the younger generation of cricket lovers. I don't recall seeing one beer snake during the entire test!! Unacceptable and dare I say it as Un-Australian as ball tampering!
Cameron Rose
Expert
RM, I think you make some good points, but the popularity of cricket, while still consistent over the summer months, is somewhat cyclical. The main thing is that Australians (and probably most countries) love a winner. If Australia becomes the best cricket nation in the world again, the people will come back. As for the names, colours and sickeningly manufactured nature of our domestic T20, I'll never disagree with someone that wants to take a slice at the BBL.
Cameron Rose
Expert
Some excellent points made by D.Large and Kris, and the debate over per capita is a worthy one. Interesting to note the yobbo element that Kris speaks of, which would obviously be amplified at such a small ground, and even more so when sparsely populated.
RM
Guest
I think Cricket in Melbourne should be moved to a small stadium...Most of international matches in Melbourne(Tests, ODI's, T20I) hardly attract a crowd of more than 30K....Only Boxing Day tests and T20I against major teams should be played at MCG.....The G is no longer sprirtual home of Aussie Cricket.....Its name should also be changes to MFG....(....Football....).... Melbourne actually needs a Cricket stadium only of the size of Lord's.....so why not develop ground like Junction Oval.....
Atawhai Drive
Guest
RM, I'm a diehard traditionalist. But I love the illuminating stumps and would be happy to see them used in Test cricket. Agree with you about the BBL franchise names and colours. Sadly lacking in originality and flair.
RM
Guest
I think crowd issue is more synomous with other and greater issue.....That Cricket no longer commands the respect of Australians....BBL 's crowd figures are even less than Soccer's A-League this year....Forget about matching Union, League or that juggernaut popularly known as AFL.....I think Cricket's rapid decline in popularity is the real elephant in the room......the CA realises it to some extent but they never directly state it...Cricket writers should also realise that..... I am from India and want to tell you that BBL's franchise names and colours are even more pathetic than that of IPL....And now lightening stumps....Come on give me some proper Cricket....
Max
Guest
I think it ridiculous that Hobart feels an entitlement to regular Test cricket. Just being a Sheffield Shield state should not make it their right to a Test, especially when it seems few people care about it. They have regular BBL cricket and multiple international ODIs in addition to the sixth Test - something has to give for such a small population base. In my opinion, the international ODIs should go to Canberra, and serious consideration should be given to alternating the sixth Test between the ACT and Tasmania as well. (For the record, I live in Melbourne and have no links to either city/state/territory)
Rob from Brumby Country
Guest
Bah! Typical mainlander hyperbole! Hobart's weather is actually very reliable. In all the time that I spent in Hobart (four years) the weather was wonderfully consistent - overcast nearly all the time, and yet very rarely raining. Yes, you read that right. Hobart is in a massive rainshadow and is Australia's second driest capital city. Not many people know that.
The Kebab Connoisseur
Guest
Strip Hobart and give the test match to Geelong. They will have a great ground for next summer and within an hour of both Ballarat and Melbourne is at the ideal cross roads for the cricket lovers of southern Oz. For Tasmanians, there is clearly so little interest that the ones that are into test cricket should just come to Victoria to watch. Bit of a warning to the AFL too if they are considering allowing Tassie into the big league. They had a side in the VFL and it had the same problem as cricket, just lack of crowd interest to support it. Turns out going to Homebush/western Sydney was the better move for footy.
Kris
Guest
Cheers. I see what you're saying and agree (it particularly annoys me come every Olympics and the Australian media whips it out and starts crowing/ giving excuses...). On that, Tasmania's demographics are quite different to the rest of the country. We've got a higher rate of people in the bottom end of the socio-economic scale and skew older too, which also means more unemployed or on pensions. This might support an argument that the $43 entry is off-putting. That said, it also means that more people have the time to commit to a Test, so I wouldn't be too confident either way! I made a comment in one of the other articles that I'll just cut and paste rather than rework! "As someone who attended every Test in Hobart from 1995 to 2007 (Pak, NZ, Pak, NZ, WI, SL) but have not since I can offer my reflections on why I have not been to the last three (Pak, NZ and SL). The biggest reason for me is the drink. Whether it is about culture, the licencing of the venue or the reticence of security to deal with the yob element, I can honestly say that pissed idiots and their carry-on forced me out. This is especially true now that I have kids. I help out with my oldest son’s Milo In2Cricket program and had a opportunity for him to take part in the clinic on the oval at lunch (and a free ticket for myself) on the Saturday but knocked it back because of too many bad experiences with drunken spectators over previous years." This is probably why I'm sympathetic to the tone of the article. I love Test cricket, but with two small kids and a full time job, the price/ weather/ opposition/ competing priorities/ tolerance of dills kept me away again.