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Hobart Versus Perth. The Hurricanes versus the Scorchers. Big Bash T20 cricket. Mean anything to you? Did it get your attention?
With no apologies to IPL, the Perth Scorchers are kings of T20 cricket after winning the Big Bash final by 39 runs.
They totalled 3/191 and Hobart made 7/142.
Very convincing. Very Justin Langer-like. Very tough.
Like all Australian brands of cricket, it was macho, athletic, a superb spectacle on a wicket and a ground that is a credit to Western Australia… except for one thing.
There were only 20,000 people to see the Scorchers play in their third grand final in a row. For a population approaching 3 million. In the richest state in the Nation.
This crowd number is scandalous.
And so is the protection from the heat.
The MCG seats 100,000 in some comfort. That’s what we are going to need in a few years in Perth.
Of course, the WACA had a veritable 20 minutes to organise it. Gee, thanks a lot CA!
Cricket Australia made the Big Bash grand final a curtain raiser to the Sheffield Shield match between Tasmania and WA – tells you a lot about CA’s mistaken priorities, indeed about cricket’s mistaken priorities.
Holden went out of business in Australia because they didn’t deliver what the people wanted in a car. Cricket Australia and other national bodies are making the same mistake with their product – the game of T20 cricket!
Are you listening James? Do you hear that CA Board? Are you with me ICC?
If the BBL grand final had been played on Saturday night, it would have got 70,000.
People, T20 Cricket is here to stay as the number one brand of the game. It is the biggest show in the world of cricket and half the world doesn’t still think ‘cricket’ is an insect!
People in Australia are hooked and the game is barely three seasons old.
Franchisees are queueing up. The salary cap is already well over 1 million dollars – and the lazy layabouts only play 14 games each, plus finals.
Tell me they shouldn’t play more like twice that number?
Tell me the salary cap wouldn’t double?
Tell me a franchise somewhere in the Big Bash couldn’t get 500,000 people through the turnstiles if we went to a 28 game season?
Why are we playing cricket? To get people to play it with us, to watch it being played by the best, to enjoy everything it offers.
Why are we having three forms of the game? To get people to come and watch us. To fit games into confined working weeks.
Why is T20 the greatest show in town (after the Boss, who played tonight at the Arena in Perth)?
Because people have been liberated by T20 cricket. They are consumed by it.
Ask the lady who manages KFC in Australia: “I have never seen so many people at games, and on Network Ten, watching cricket. It is an amazing ride. We are thrilled to be a part of it.”
Ask the Fairfax Radio Network and the Ten Network what they think of the Big Bash. Ask them about ratings!
Ask the Australian players of the past and present… they are gobsmacked!
Why?
If you saw 43-year-old Brad Hogg bamboozle the Hurricanes out of the game, you’d know.
If you saw Craig Simmons, Shaun Marsh, Adam Voges and Mitch Marsh hit 10 sixes and 11 fours, some well over 100 metres of aerial distance, you’d know.
To see George Bailey bat was worth the price of admission. To see Pat Cummins hit 145 kph also. To watch Jason Behrendorff hit Tim Paine’s off stump with a jaffar and see Alphonso Thomas’ skill, ditto.
To listen to Gilly’s Group explain the game of T20, you’d know why.
To watch 20,000 people actually going stark raving mad at a cricket game, you’d know why.
I couldn’t care less who won the Big Bash final.
Obviously Justin Langer, Simon Katich, Christina Matthews and the WACA Board could. Christian Porter cares. Dennis Lillee cares. Adam Gilchrist cares.
Do you care?
I can tell you this with certainty. 22 guys got to show their wares in a grand final on friday night. It felt like an AFL or NRL grand final and if they had a stadium big enough and we had a 20-something game season they would have had gotten a similar crowd.
There are 200 more guys like the 22 who won a medal on Friday night around Australia.
They train and play six days a week. They deserve all the support and money you can invest in them. They are worth every penny they make.
But they will not make that payday in the Bupa Shield or Ryobi Cup in its current form. Only the Big Bash can currently support a national cricket league.
Gilly’s Group alluded to it. There are 20 quick bowlers around Australia who could play Test Cricket tomorrow. We can only fit three.
There are 30 quick bowlers around Australia who can play Big Bash. There are 50 who can Play Ryobi and Bupa. And they are all outstanding.
So are the batsmen and spinners and wicketkeepers…
The cricket world needs T20 Cricket, one day cricket and extended days cricket to be part of a national league which lasts at least 20 weeks of the year.
Then, and only then, will cricket realise its full potential and fill grounds of 50-100,000 on grand final day.
After 100 plus years, cricket has finally arrived as a world calibre summer sport.
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