Some critics in Australia are quick to blame the average punter for not attending Test cricket. They’ve expressed their lack of interest with their feet. A dire crowd attended the first test of last summer in Perth against the West Indies – only 59,125 attended across 4 days, 2 of those being weekends.
Questions need to be asked. Is it the dominance of the Australian cricket team at home leading to a perceived lack of competitiveness in Test matches played on Australian soil? The team’s consistent success may have led to a diminished level of excitement and anticipation among fans, potentially contributing to lower attendance.
Are we living the official decline of Test cricket due to the rapid rise of T20 cricket? Has cricket become seasonal in the extreme, where we only flick on the cricket during Boxing Day and New Year tests?
Nathan Lyon celebrates one of his six wickets at Wellington’s Basin Reserve. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
Before condemning the average punter, you must remember there are a range of factors at play, including the aforementioned consistent team success. The TikTok generation is in desperate need of quick hits of dopamine, and the cost-of-living crisis is real.
However, from an Australian millennial point of view, seeing the Basin Reserve in all its glory was a reminder of what it was like ‘back in the day’, and something we simply cannot experience in Australia anymore.
Yes sure, the Sydney Cricket Ground has the Ladies Pavilion and the ‘Yabba’ statue, the Adelaide Oval has the hill and the old scoreboard. The Melbourne Cricket Ground, which is more of a football ground, should be afforded some form of dignity due to its standing in the Australian sporting folklore.
As for both the Gabba and Perth Stadium, they are horrible places to watch uneventful results in the scorching sun. Simply put, it is not Test cricket’s fault; it’s the Australian grounds that are at fault. They absolutely lack relevance and character.
Alternatively, the Basin Reserve which hosted the first Test between Australia and New Zealand has a certain refined charm to it. There is a sense of tranquility walking into the ground, then a hush around the ground during the first hour of each day’s play. In Australia beers are already skolled and Mexican waves have already begun.
The grandstand at the western end, accompanied by a Cricket Museum full of New Zealand cricket memorabilia, looks over the average Joe on the hill in the foreground and the picturesque Mount Victoria in the background. Schools are to the southern side of the ground and other Wellington landmarks accompany it.
Sitting on the hill at the base of the mountain. I felt a tinge of sadness. Every man, woman and child scurries to the get the best vantage point before the start of the day’s play and with the close proximity of other punters, it allows yarns to be spun and a certain level of fellowship.
This venue seems to bring players back down to earth. There are no bright lights or fireworks. It’s almost like the local cricket ground in either Bondi in the east or Bunbury in the west.
Fan engagement is at an all-time high as the crowd is as close to the playing surface as you will get in world cricket. So much so they invite fans onto the ground at lunch. Informal games of cricket appear here and there on the ground during the big break.
You simply cannot get that in Australia.
It’s a blast from the past and something we simply miss out on. It is truly reminiscent of the Gabba in the 80’s – dog track, hill and heavy beer (which the Basin Reserve also provides, I might add).
If you make it to the cricket in Australia now you don’t get an experience, you just get sunburnt, overpriced food and drinks and an uneventful non-contest. Then there’s the tyrannical security service that quivers at the sight of fun in the grandstand.
I just hope that cricket boards and other sporting bodies see the Basin Reserve and other suburban grounds as the future of sport. Because at the end of the day, it is the experience that makes a day at cricket memorable.
aerial lizard
Roar Rookie
International cricketers also.
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
... by Tasmanians!
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
Going to an NZ cricket ground is like being transported back to the 1970's? Sheesh!
matth
Roar Guru
All true except the sunburn. Not sure how you prevent it being sunny and 35 in Australia in summer. Also the small capacity means Perth’s poor attendance was still higher than Basin Reserves, and that’s why NZ cricket has to play white ball matches at a rugby ground to try and break even
aerial lizard
Roar Rookie
NTCA ground in Launceston has been described as the best cricket ground in the world.
Nathan Absalom
Roar Guru
Couldn't agree more, although Adelaide Oval is awesome for cricket. In my opinion, you can't have a great ground to watch cricket unless you can walk a lap of the oval and watch the cricket from different points of view.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
There are nice grounds all around Sydney where they play club cricket.
Gamechanger
Roar Rookie
The Gabba test this summer was exciting to see the emergence of Shamar Joseph. However, January is not the time for a Qld/ Gabba test. The middle of summer, peak humidity and heat just equalled oppressive conditions . Importantly there is not enough coverage from the sun for spectators. Late November was where it was and early in the summer is the best place for a Gabba test.
The Immortal Scott Minto
Roar Rookie
Very true of The Gabba. Combine the sun, heat, humidity, lack of air circulation, being packed in like sardines, and the concrete, for 7 hours. I'm amazed that anyone turns up at all actually.
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
Yeah. The article was comparing apples and oranges. What suffices for test cricket in NZ doesn’t work in Oz.
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
#ozinsa The economics of test cricket asserts the Basin Reserve is not up to it. Now - - given they got an oval stadium sitting on the edge of the CBD.....with a capacity of around 30,000 (not sure what the cricket capacity is with sight screening etc).......why, why restrict to the Basin? I guess part of the answer is that Wellington - despite being the capital - is a very small city with only around 500K in the 'Greater' region which includes to Masterton and beyond to the east coast. So.....perhaps a 10K capacity for a projection of 4-5 days is about right........most of the time. Arguably for Australia - bring in some more temporary seating and try to nudge 14-15K?
Tony Hodges
Roar Rookie
Mr Jones, I put it to you that, for this very reason, Manuka Oval in Canberra is the best ground in Australia.
BigGordon
Roar Rookie
There's no doubt that grounds like Basin Reserve, Newlands in South African and many grounds in India & the West Indies are great places to watch the cricket, if you enjoy a more rustic, laid-back approach. They're set in genuinely pretty parts of the world, so even if the cricket's a tad slow and not to your liking, the setting has to be. That said, there's a place for "soulless, corporate stadiums" because mostly, that's what people want. People want to be able to go to events which is why these stadiums have grown over the past 40 or 50 years - to accommodate more people. They've also grown because people want much better facilities than we experienced back in the 60's and 70's. There's upsides & downsides to both types of stadium. but the experience is the cricket - not the queue for the one working dunny, not the sunburn or the overpriced food and drinks and certainly not the beautiful views
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
I lived in Wellington for a year and can say with some certainty that the Basin Reserve is a 5hit hole not fit to wipe the butt of any Australian grounds. Its charm, such as it was, is lost on me. If you’re OK with a capacity of 10k (minimum to host an Ashes or India series in Oz is 40k) and facilities from an earlier time, then fine. If you want the chance to watch a big match in a big crowd, the Cello isn’t cutting it.
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
So,,, the premise of the article is that spectators get sunburned at Australian stadiums, but not at the Basin Reserve. Sigh…
RayinSydney
Roar Rookie
The Basin is fantastic, a perfect cricket ground in every way, even to being in the middle of a round a bout, in the old days you used to be able to jump the fence and play your own game on the ground during breaks in play, use the fence pickets as wickets, then run back when the players came back out.