‘Big cost for families to keep turning out’: Marnus admits crowded schedule turning fans away

Marnus Labuschagne, the modern-day cricket nuffie, would walk for many miles to watch any form of the game so perhaps he’s not the best person to ask about Australia’s dwindling crowds.

Labuschagne fronted the media on Monday to promote Tuesday’s ODI against England at the MCG where crowds, or the diminishing size of them, was again a hot topic. 

The middle-order batter is the kind of tragic that there can be no such thing as too much cricket but he conceded the jam-packed schedule is probably a factor in flagging attendance figures.

When the Australians beat England in the series opener on Thursday, there was only 15,420 in attendance at the Adelaide Oval and there was a slight uptick to 16,993 at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday night.

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With the home side already wrapping up the series on the back of two emphatic victories, Cricket Australia officials will be lucky to see a large crowd at the MCG on Tuesday.  

(Photo by Lee Warren/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

“I don’t know the specific numbers around it but I certainly don’t feel like there’s a lack of interest in the Australian team,” Labuschagne said. 

“I think with that much cricket around it’s obviously a big cost for families to keep turning out, especially you’ve got a World Cup, you’ve got the Big Bash coming up, I mean you’ve got a five Test match series (West Indies and South Africa combined).

“So I think if people don’t necessarily flock out to these one-dayers I’m sure come Boxing Day it’s going to be a packed stadium with South Africa rolling in here at the MCG.”

Well, Marnus, the “specific numbers” make for grim reading if you look at the figures from recent England ODIs at the MCG. 

On the back of the 2006-07 Ashes summer when legendary trio Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer hung up their baggy green caps after a 5-0 series avalanche, a heaving crowd of 78,625 turned out a week later at the MCG to watch Australia rub further salt into England’s wounds with an eight-wicket flogging.

Four years later after another heavily anticipated Ashes series, there were 34,845 fans in attendance at Melbourne when Shane Watson blasted an unbeaten 161 as the home side chased down a target of 295 four wickets down in a final-over thriller. 

Perhaps the crowd was significantly down on the back of Australia’s first home Ashes series loss in nearly 25 years or maybe it was the start of a trend as T20 cricket started to take market share from the 50-over format. 

When the English returned in 2014, the crowd was only slightly up with 36K in attendance while a similar turnout of 37,171 saw the 2018 ODI at the MCG. 

There was of course Australia’s opening World Cup match of 2015 at the Melbourne mecca when just under 85K witnessed a 111-run cakewalk which proves there is still relatively recent evidence of an appetite for major ODI events. 

This bilateral series is virtually meaningless in the grand scheme of things and Australia’s cricketing public is reacting accordingly. With the matches not on free-to-air TV, it’s getting nowhere near the cut-through these games traditionally had during Nine’s 40-year cricket broadcast dynasty up until 2018.

There’s been plenty of criticism about the timing of the series with England backing up just four days after winning the T20 World Cup but CA was not to know if either team would have made it all the way to the final.

And with South Africa pulling out of the January ODI series, this will be Australia’s only 50-over hit-out at home this summer after six matches against Zimbabwe and New Zealand a couple of months ago in Townsville and Cairns.

With the next World Cup in India less than 12 months away, Labuschagne argued each match was important for the individual players and the team to build combinations and experience together.

While he’s an automatic selection at first drop in the Test team, the 28-year-old Queenslander is still trying to cement his spot at No.4 in the ODI line-up, switching roles with his batting mentor Steve Smith.

Labuschagne contributed 58 off 55 in a brisk 101-run partnership with Smith (94 off 114) at the SCG, just his sixth half-century in 26 ODIs. He’s only hit one ton while averaging 31.84 at a decent strike rate of 84.05 but has only cleared the boundary once in the one-day arena.

“That No.4 role is a bit unique because I think the tempo is a little bit higher than that No.3 position,” he said.

“For me it’s about just being able to read the game and consistently play that higher tempo, then understanding if the wicket is tougher to bat on then I’ve got that Test gear that I can lock into and understand that a little bit of hard work here will back-end it, especially with the amount of power and strength that we have with our five, six, seven, eight.”

Labuschagne surprised everyone, including Moeen Ali, when he hit the second delivery he faced in Sydney for his breakthrough six and said his ODI mindset was about “hitting the sweepers hard” in the outfield rather than trying to blast balls into the outer.

“I think looking for a boundary early on is really good so if there’s an opportunity like the other night where they had mid-on, mid-off up, they had no one out, there was a power play with an off-spinner bowling, it didn’t matter that it was my second ball, it was that opportunity that came up and I’m glad that I took the opportunity to take that option on,” he said.

“That’s the sort of energy and confidence I want to be displaying consistently.”

He believes he’s always been able to rotate the strike well with singles and is adamant he’s in the top six ODI batters in Australia when in form. Smith and Warner are locks, Travis Head is making a good fist of opener so Labuschagne is set to be in a battle with the likes of Cameron Green, Mitch Marsh, Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell when he returns from his broken leg for a World Cup berth. 

A young Aussie supporter waves a flag during game one of the ODI series against England at Adelaide. (Photo by Mark Brake – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)

“The way the one-day game is moulding and unfolding you probably don’t have as much time to sit on it. You’ve got to trust yourself a little bit more. That comes with understanding risk and understanding where you can take the game on.” he said.

“I certainly don’t think it’s almost giving me an excuse to be reckless, I think it’s still calculated, understanding where I can hit certain bowlers and what’s my best scoring options for certain deliveries.” 

Labuschagne said he was slightly taken aback when Smith was overlooked as the stand-in skipper for a resting Pat Cummins in favour of Josh Hazlewood on Saturday but added the team was built around a core of experienced leaders.

“It was probably a little bit of a surprise but I think as a squad and as a group, we’re trying to make sure that we’re not just kind of becoming a team that can be focused on one specific person to captain the side,” he said.

“Anyone at any point can take over, depending on what the situation is, just growing leadership on the field.  

(Photo by Matt King – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)

“Josh and Steve are great leaders and Steve’s got a wealth of captaincy experience. 

“The thought was to give Josh an opportunity in that leadership space where he hasn’t had much opportunity prior to that.”

As for Warner potentially having his lifetime leadership ban lifted to hold an official title within the Australian set-up, Labuschagne hoped his veteran teammate was given the chance to be considered for a role in the national squads or his BBL franchise, Sydney Thunder.

“His knowledge on the game, and the way he thinks about the game is very good,” Labuschagne said.

“I’m not in charge of what they’re thinking and how we’re thinking about the captaincy but definitely he is a great candidate.”

Cricket Australia announced on Monday that its code of conduct had been altered so players and officials are now able to have sanctions reviewed, appealed or lifted after initial penalties had been accepted.