Our players love cricket, so why not the fans?

Yes, the feel of the stadiums would have changed. The MCG does feel slightly different without the open top Olympic Stand, but having the roof cover helps crowd comfort. With the Gabba they had the issue of the dog track and removing that allowed for the expansion. You are right in that there could have been a move to more boutique grounds in various locations.

As I said, the genie's been out of the bottle a long time ago by CA working with governments/other codes for the expansion of most "grounds", including the Gabba, Perth Stadium, even the MCG. Adelaide Oval redevelopment is OK because it feels like less of a stadium. There would have been a time 25-30 years ago to go in a different direction and develop more boutique cricket "grounds" including at different locations, but that time has long passed.

"Which begs the question, why does CA keep pushing for cricket to be played in bigger and bigger stadiums , the cost bases of which contribute to the high ticket prices? The genies out of the bottle now, but – Lords aside – I think most England Test venues are 15,000 to 30,000, are usually packed and make for a great experience." I don't know if the CA is pushing for it. The only change we have seen is a move from the WACA to Optus Oval. What others options are there? Melbourne would only have Etihad but that would limit the Boxing Day test and it isn't an ideal cricket ground. Sydney - North Shore Oval? lol Brisbane? Adelaide? So I don't see there being any other options here

Not a Brisbane resident but just thinking of the closeness of matches here I recall in the early 90s a first innings total of 300 at the Gabba was pretty solid. Matches were tight and the wicket tough to play on, especially against attacks containing Ambrose or Wasim Going into the first Saturday of this Gabba test the Aussies were 1-312 so where is the incentive to turn up when the gap between the two teams is so large. The build up to the series wasn't there for me this year. Not sure about you. In the 90s you may have had a few weekends of the FAI/Mercantile Mutual Cup which was half decent to watch. This time around the Marsh Cup is a bit of an after thought. There were T20s but behind the paywall and a fair few people might not have known they were even on.

“when Peter Siddle claimed his famous hat-trick – the greatest Australian Test moment to ever grace the pitch.“ What? I’d take this moment over that any day. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0pxloGfJ2Qg

Cricket is better on TV. I go to the odd Big Bash game both of I really want to emerse myself in a game. Add to that the cost and there you go. Also doesn't help when Australia are 200/0 chasing a small score. It was over day two and i just followed the score rather than watch the rest. A big improvement would be to return Test cricket to smaller ground with grass banks. The NZ game last week was a good example of what to do. New venue, well attended and sitting on the grass with kids able to play is so much better than sitting in a stadium.

Mark Waugh didn't even go to watch his brother play. They are at the cricker when they are paid to do commentary, If a match is on in summer in daytime weekdays bring in a 10 dollar pensioner ticket. They have bankrupted Foxtel so they are rolling in dough they dont need extra money.

Jarrod there appears to be a lot of factors involved in unsurprising drops in attendances: *ridiculously excessive costs of entry, food & beverages *ridiculously excessive security/PC police state/nanny state vibes at ground *uncomfortable experience sitting in stinking hot concrete bowls with no guarantee of being under shade for the day in so many areas of stadiums *no grass to sit on in most stadiums *ridiculous amount of times wasted queuing for food/drinks/toilet/ground entry *cheaper and more convenient alternatives: sit at home and watch it, or a nice air-con pub just down the road with relaxed atmosphere and cheaper food/drink

hi Jarrod,I could have written pages about some of the things that might affect a person's decision to go our stay home. Things like mortgage stress, no recent pay rises to combat CPI, obvious things like transport, parking, etc. I don't think if a survey was conducted,there'd be one single factor, but combined, they could indicate a drop off in attendances. In terms of talent, you don't get to be considered for Test cricket if you aren't very, very good. That said, prior to the first Test, I nominated this batting lineup as one of the weakest I've seen in the past 4 or 5 decades. Granted we had some brilliant sides for many years, but on paper, that lineup was poor. Sure they got a swag of runs against a very inexperienced Pakistan lineup, but I want to see what they can do, not only for the rest of this summer and into Bangladesh before passing judgement. I'm also confident the selectors feel the same, bearing in mind, if any one of these guys goes down injured, we have little in the way of in form quality replacements.

Chips are about $5 at the footy. How much do you expect them to be? It's probably $4 at Red Rooster for the same box of chips.

I actually think the price of food and beer is mostly reasonable. It's just that when you're sitting there for 7 hours you're going to spend a lot food and drink. I'm going to drink beer otherwise it's a long boring day sober.

Test matches are live against the gate on multiple channels, beamed to your massive HD screen at home. 25 years ago you had to attend the match in order to watch it. TVs were small low resolution screens, no internet apart from dial up bulletin boards, no real way to connect to the rest of the world unless you left your house. Staying at home was boring and isolating. Not so these days. Multitude of ways to entertain yourself at home. Probably too many if anything. You need to leave the house to get away from all that sensory stimulation. Throw in the cost of living pressures, cost of attending live events far outstripping inflation and wage growth over the past 25 years and you wonder why anyone attends live sport.

"However, low attendances in Brisbane against Pakistan suggests fans don’t want to watch these players in action. The Aussie squad is full of talent, with great leaders at the helm, so could it be that the public are losing their outright love for the game? Is Cricket Australia’s management at fault?" hi Jarrod. I come back to the sentences above, which summarise the position your running in this article. IMO you're running a line that's isn't taking into a account a raft of factors which then leads to (possibly) erroneous conclusions. First of all, I can't see any correlation between the passion players have for the game and spectator numbers. I equally can't see how you can decide the public doesn't want to watch these guys in action, first of all based on one Test (which started on a Thursday) and without doing some type of survey to gauge why people aren't fronting up. I also question your premise the Australian side is full of talent. Prior to this Test starting, there were lots of debates about who should be in the side, not because we were being overwhelmed with talent, but because guys were playing some very ordinary cricket. The only blokes in the top order who justified their places in the lead up games were Labuschagne, Smith & Wade, plus the bowlers. The rest we hoped would do well. Throw in an opposition who aren't exactly household names in Australia, especially their bowling attack and the First Test wasn't a game I would have committed to watching live. Others have commented on the cost of a days play and it's not a lot different now that it was over the past 4 or 5 decades. A day at the Test cricket has always been relatively pricey, but people were happy to make the effort, mostly because it was the pinnacle of the summer and Australia fielded competitive sides in the main. The only irritants were lining up for the toilets and the queues to get in. Nowadays, it seems there are way more irritants - limits on beers, the security, etc, so if a person has ONE bad experience, they're hardly likely to return any time soon, especially when the games are in TV. I also wonder about convenience. The last time I watched a days play in Sydney, I was at the train station at 8am to get into Central to walk up the hill to make an 11am start. Throw in a full day and repeat the process in reverse going home and that's easily a 12 hour day. Throw in a couple of kids and not only is it expensive, it can be hard work too. The alternative for some is to arrange to meet the mates at a convenient pub, sit in the air con, drink what you like, watch the game, yarn, etc and head home. A much more pleasant day out.

Which would cover either of those series entirely.

A few years ago it was exactly the same at the WACA. To the Association's credit, they specifically acknowledged these issues with the firm they had contracted and changed firms. They were much better in terms of being fairly relaxed, but still clueless in terms of the game itself - i.e. pointless wandering in front of sightscreens or even setting their chairs up in front of, having no clue what umpires/players were on about when waving their arms at them from the field of play. I've found Perth Stadium (different firm) ok so far, though have noticed a preoccupation with walking up and down the aisle stopping on every step to look across every row of seats. It's OTT at every 10 minutes and annoying when they're blocking the view of play. But overall I've found the atmosphere relaxed and no issue from security when groups gathering or getting a bit loose, such as the Indian fans last year dancing and banging drums up on the concourses.

I'm talking about the quality of the games, which is terrible in the BBL. The BBL (worst name ever, what does Big Bash League mean anyway? I know where the name came from but they should have thought of something that doesn't sound like it was thought up by an 8 year old) was very popular at the start but its support as dropped dramatically, particularly last year. There were too many games at too low a standard. It's fun to take the kids along to but they go for the bells and whistles - it won't turn them into cricketers, and no-one really cares about the result. It's cricket entertainment, not cricket. Yes there's a real problem with ODI's - they've become stale and formulaic. Big bats have killed cricket; they've killed the contest.