Limited overs, limited exposure: Cricket Australia's TV deal and the declining interest in the short forms of the game

If a cricket match is played in a stadium and nobody is watching, does it really happen at all? That’s a thought I kept having when looking at both the coverage and the in-person attendance in the recent men’s bi-lateral T20 series that Australia played against Sri Lanka.

People keep talking about the health of the long-form game: Test cricket has been dying for about as long as Test cricket has existed – and that line of thinking is massively overblown in most places, especially in Australia.

But looking at the coverage of the Sri Lanka series and the attendance, the games have felt like they’ve been happening in a separate world and it’s hard not to feel like international limited-overs cricket is the one in need of a spruce-up and a health management plan.

Some of that feeling is uncontrollable due to the pandemic. The recent one-day tour against New Zealand which was called off due to border restrictions is one example, and the length of bubbles and concept of bubble fatigue should be respected – it is an undertaking just getting into another country at the current time.

But the other part of it has to do with access and coverage – all men’s limited overs cricket is behind the Fox and Kayo paywall and has been for some time now – and awareness of men’s limited overs internationals is low generally.

It is important to acknowledge that not being on terrestrial TV might not quite be the problem that it used to be as people are so used to streaming in the current day. But competition for online eyes is still fierce, and cost is still an issue for those without the financial flexibility to be able to pay or for kids whose parents have little interest in sports or pay TV.

Being away from the waves of free-to-air TV means that Cricket Australia are also shooting themselves in the foot in trying to attract new fans. Limited-overs series can be an excellent avenue to attract new people to the game, especially younger fans or more casual fans who might not have the commitment for a full five days of Test cricket quite yet.

(Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Think about the ways that got you interested as a kid or might get someone interested in cricket. For me, aside from playing the game, it was through channel surfing finding something to watch in these lazy days and nights in the back end of January and early February, or being dragged along to a game when the ODIs rolled through town.

In my early cricket fandom, seeing Michael Bevan make an improbable chase, Adam Gilchrist carve through the covers, or Sanath Jarasuriya launch an uppercut over point eventually became appointment viewing and largely got me into the wider game – and there is still an imprint from those moments.

Without that free-to-air access, I can’t say that would be the case in the current day – as much as someone like Glenn Maxwell could easily have that same effect.

And while there is the Big Bash and the coverage of the Test season to still carry some of that load, they aren’t necessarily leveraged well to make the overall interest season one that carries the nation’s interest. This is particularly stark when trying to leverage the Big Bash into something more than a supporting act and the BBL players into all-round stars.

There is the potential for the BBL to be the platform to the national sides. Names who’ve had success like Ben McDermott and Josh Inglis, combined with the Test players who play all formats, should be a compelling offer for people. However, once the BBL and Test series finish up, it feels like the same players can fade from view as people move on to other things.

It’s not like Cricket Australia didn’t have any other options in being able to widen the coverage and leverage the BBL into the international season. Channel Ten, who had done well with the early seasons of the BBL, put in an offer in the last round of rights negotiations rumoured to be around $950 million as compared with the current deal of $1 billion from the Channel Seven and Fox consortium.

Crucially, the Ten bid included all forms of international cricket, the BBL and more domestic cricket. Cricket Australia executives with James Sutherland as CEO, who left shortly after, selected as a business might, and went for the bigger deal.

An extra $50 million is nothing to sniff at, and potentially Cricket Australia see avenues where that is invested more widely – but when viewed in context with a comparable $950 million for more uniform coverage of all cricket, available to everyone who can attach a coat hanger to a TV or get internet access it would have had a greater role in growing the game and keeping people interested than the current structure, and hence we are starting to see some ambivalence now seep into the limited-overs arena.

Josh Hazlewood celebrates taking a wicket against Sri Lanka. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)

Remember, Cricket Australia is a non-for profit organisation that receives government funding, and is a custodian of the game in Australia and should intend to do what is right for the game, regardless of revenue, even if that might not always work in reality.

It’s hard not to associate this decision with some of the other broader negative cultural issues that have seeped through the game in Australia over the past while. Although ‘Sandpapergate’ has come and gone, there’s still the blow up of the Justin Langer contract negotiations, the Tim Paine mess, and away scheduling issues as evidence there is still a bit of a cloud over Cricket Australia’s operations and strategic planning.

The last thing to note on this point is comparing the system with the English one, whose systemic problems have just been thoroughly picked over after their poor Ashes campaign. Part of the problem of the small player pool and potentially declining interest from the community, is that international cricket isn’t reaching as many people as it could in England.

They’ve been without any free-to-air international coverage for some time. And while this is just a small piece of the puzzle for English cricket and the coverage issues are not as prevalent in Australia – we might be seeing a decline in overall interest in the areas of the game that aren’t being as exposed or leveraged as well as they could be.

Meanwhile, a superbly bowled super over from Josh Hazlewood in Game 2 of the T20 series and Glenn Maxwell reverse sweeping balls for six is a signifier that the game is still well and good at least on the field.

With the start of a new era post-Justin Langer and with the T20 World Cup coming up later this year, it should be an exciting time to follow limited-overs cricket – it’s just a pity we aren’t paying that much attention to it.