England’s shock loss to Pakistan in the early hours of Tuesday morning gave Australian fans a certain satisfaction on their otherwise standard weekday commute.
Morning coffees were enjoyed with a healthy spoonful of smugness, and many relished in the hosts’ failure after starting at un-backable odds. It also raised the prospect (albeit, a slim one) of an early World Cup exit for Eoin Morgan’s side.
A loss to the West Indies next Friday would make one of their later games against India and Australia must-win encounters – a tense place to be in the group stages.
England will almost certainly still finish in the all-important top four. But the fact is they remain under considerable pressure: Pressure to win their first major ODI trophy, pressure to convert their world domination into tangible success, and pressure to not succumb to the pressure of a home World Cup.
No pressure, lads.
England’s Ben Stokes leaves the pitch (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
But perhaps the biggest weight of all is the fact that this team, this summer, are expected to do something special. There’s an expectation to not just win games of cricket, but the hearts and minds of the wider public.
Officials are expecting the rare scheduling eclipse of a World Cup and Ashes summer to lift cricket from it’s malaise in the UK, and inspire a nation.
You see cricket has, for some time now, struggled to attract and retain eyeballs in the UK – particularly young ones. Shifting the entire sport behind a paywall after the 2005 Ashes is now almost universally seen as a short-sighted cash grab by the England and Wales Cricket Board, which in hindsight has had a vastly negative impact on the sport.
The pay TV money, however, is now an opioid the ECB can’t and won’t walk away from. While the suits at Lord’s reiterate the pay TV money has allowed them to invest far more in grassroots cricket than they could with a hybrid free-to-air deal, the bare facts are that fewer kids are interested in cricket as they were 15 years ago.
Cricketers are also now far less recognisable than footballers. In fact, UK sports writer Jonathan Liew notes that a curious aspect of Ben Stokes’ criminal trial last year was that ‘person after person claimed in court that they had no idea who the defendant was’.
And that’s an issue for England. While the rusted-on cricket enthusiast will always be there, the ECB knows it must tap into cricket’s unmet potential by converting those yet to see the light.
That’s why winning this summer is so important for them. While success doesn’t guarantee a legion of new fans, failure means they won’t even get the chance.
Joe Root, speaking in the lead-up to the World Cup, said in no uncertain terms the importance of the coming months. He said England were desperate to recreate a moment like 2005 where, as a 14-year-old, he recalled seeing people emerge as fans despite no previous interest in the sport.
“The way the country came together and really got behind that England team was very inspirational,” he told Cricbuzz.
“We’ve got a very unique opportunity to play a World Cup and Ashes in the same summer and to do something special in both formats. I think it’s really important we recognise that, and we do everything we can to improve the game of cricket in this country.”
This summer has been touted as one of the ‘biggest ever’ for cricket in England. With the Champions League final now done, cricket has a free, uncluttered sporting schedule that it so rarely gets.
Each year, football takes up the vast majority of column inches for 10 months a year, and every other year (with the European Championships and World Cup) it almost lays claim to all 12.
But this year, it’s different. Cricket has free rein. And make no mistake everyone at the top, from players to executives, know the importance of making hay while the sun (hopefully) shines. The most obvious way that can happen is if England’s cricketer are successful.
The pressure is on.
Paul
Roar Guru
wow, Joshua, The numbers you quote are quite incredible. I understand England people's fixation with football/soccer, which perhaps explains the every decreasing period between the end of one season and the start of anther. That said, it's got to be a huge concern for the ECB that more people aren't becoming invested in the game. The dearth of free to air cricket is only in it's infancy in Australia and people are still having a love affair with T20 cricket, so the impact here, to date, has probably been minimal. We also have entrenched seasons, footy season & cricket season, which makes a huge difference to our approach to all our favorite sports. I hope all cricket administrators come to their senses and realize people need a steady diet of the game, that they can easily access, in order for it survive
David Schout
Expert
The latest rights deal includes some T20 back on the BBC, which is a step in the right direction.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
The T20 Blast is behind a paywall. Next year 2 men's international T20 and 1 women's international T20 will be live FTA on BBC as will matches from The Hundred. Channel 5, another FTA broadcaster, did broadcast some BBL for one season but it didn't rate very well and was scrapped after that season. I only got into cricket once we were subscribed to Sky Sports so I think that has a massive influence on whether or not people get interested in the game.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
"It’s not just the paywall, it’s the game itself. My mates at sixth form think that cricket is boring and that nothing happens and are more interested in football." .. That's a hell of a problem Joshua and one we don't suffer from here. Soccer is still a relatively minor sport here and nothing like the monster it is in England. Not sure how you'd go about combating it or if that's even possible. We're lucky that we still have schoolkids who think cricket is pretty cool and I think you can put that mostly down to the Big Bash being on FTA TV. What's the situation there with the T20. FTA or paywall?
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
I noticed that too Ouch. Do you know if that applies to their T20 as well? If it is, that's a mistake I reckon. T20 gets the kids involved, I don't think there's much doubt about that, and it seems to be popular enough to make money on free to air TV. The ratings here in Oz seem pretty good at least. Could work in England too.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Hi Paul, I don't think that there would be any detrimental impact to the game in England if England were to lose the CWC or the Ashes (or both - I can't believe I'm writing this) because there is not that much of a fanbase to begin with. Let me give you the numbers: 2.76m people on average watched the 2005 Ashes series on Channel 4; ten years later, that number dropped to 360,000 watching the 2015 Ashes series on Sky. In 2006, Sport England recorded that 195,200 adults were playing cricket every week; ten years later, that number had dropped to 158,500. It's not just the paywall, it's the game itself. My mates at sixth form think that cricket is boring and that nothing happens and are more interested in football. Even adults get bored by it and don't want to play a game in which most of their Saturday is spent playing a long game of cricket. The ECB does run the All Stars Cricket programme for 5-8 year olds and I know that Worcestershire County Cricket Club does run sessions in the school holidays for kids to learn to play cricket and they have had some professional cricketers turn up - even Aaron Finch! (although he turned up on the day when it was a wash-out). There's a new FTA deal next year where, while the majority of games will be in highlights form on BBC, some T20 games and games from the new The Hundred tournament will be live on BBC. Sky still hold the bulk of exclusive live games. We'll just have to wait and see if this changes anything.
Ouch
Roar Rookie
The comments in the cricket sections in the British rags are littered with complaints that its only on Pay TV.
David Schout
Expert
Well obviously the investment in grassroots would be greater with the Sky deal (as is the case here with the Foxtel deal) but the question is whether the best investment in the game's longterm future is exposure on FTA tv. Which I think it is
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
I get the impression that cricket is seen as a game for toffs and soccer is for the masses. I wonder if the pay wall has contributed to that. .. If I were an England supporter I'd be a bit worried that your players are thinking so much about the wider implications. It's tough enough to win WC's without stacking external pressures such as improving the games popularity in the streets. I expect it would be difficult to completely eliminate the thought from the back of your mind but it's added pressure the players don't really need. If I were in charge I'd tell the players to forget all that and simply concentrate on winning cricket matches. Easier said than done though I suppose.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
The greed of the exec’s at the expense of the game seems to be a standard theme. The idea that getting a bit of extra money at the expense of the fans actually being able to watch the game can possibly be positive for the game really is a bizarre idea. It’s pretty much impossible to grow a fanbase from behind a paywall, because the only ones who will pay to watch it are people who are already serious fans who are going to watch lots of games. It completely excludes any more casual fans. Completely rules out kids enjoying watching the sport even if their parents aren’t that into it. Completely rules out people who like the sport, but don’t get time to watch lots of it on TV, and so can’t justify the expense of pay tv for the few games they will get the chance to watch. The hard-core fans who have nothing better to do than spend all their spare time watching sport will say “just get pay tv”. But that isn’t most people. 14-15 years ago I got up early mornings and watched Liverpool playing Champions League matches on SBS. Last year and this year when they were back in the final it would have been cool to do the same, but I’m not going to switch my internet and sign up for Optus Sport just for the odd game here and there that I am able to watch. I know that outside of things like this world cup, I’ll never see any international ODI’s or T20’s anymore. They are gone. The summer is now just test cricket and BBL. The others may not exist. And I love my cricket, but there’s no way I’m paying for Foxtel or Kayo. And many others are the same. And you know what. That means my kids will not grow up seeing any international white ball cricket ever. That’s what CA has done. If the ECB have put all cricket behind a paywall, that’s 1000x worse still.
Paul
Roar Guru
"While the suits at Lord’s reiterate the pay TV money has allowed them to invest far more in grassroots cricket than they could with a hybrid free-to-air deal, the bare facts are that fewer kids are interested in cricket as they were 15 years ago." I wonder where this investment money has gone David? I see an ODI side with a few guys from other countries and a Test XI with perhaps 4 or 5 Test quality players. If the ECB is taking money and using it to develop young local talent, all kudos to them, but where is it? I also know to an Englishman, it's unthinkable at present, but what happens to the game over there if their teams fail to win either the Cup or the Ashes? In a knockout tournament, it's very possible for a team to cause an upset and the Ashes is shaping as a genuine contest which could easily go Australia's way. In Australia, I think we'd hear the wailing & gnashing of teeth coming from the UK for sure.