International cricket is facing a sad demise

International cricket is facing a sad demise
JUNE 16, 20164:42PM

The threat to international cricket.

Tyson Otto
news.com.au

@tottodtsport
DESPITE the drain of hosting the West Indies for a three-Test series last summer, Australian cricket enjoyed a record-breaking year in the growth of the sport.

It makes this article about the game’s failure to confront a bleak future admittedly more difficult to write, but look past the huge television and crowd numbers of the Big Bash League and you can see cracks beginning to appear.
It’s overseas where the warning signs are most obvious.
And right now, after snoozing through Australia’s 2-0 series win over the West Indies last summer, the state of the sport overseas has never been so important to the game’s health in Australia.

Overseas the sport is dying, according to English cricket commentator Roy Greenslade.
Writing for The Guardian, Greenslade said the state of domestic cricket in England has the game on track to deteriorate into a minor sport.
“I accepted long ago that cricket in Britain was gradually becoming something of a niche sport,” Greenslade wrote.
“Now I fear it will vanish altogether in the not-too-distant future.”
Citing the absence of domestic cricket coverage in English newspapers and digital media, Greenslade said it is clear the sport is on the nose with fans.


It takes two to tango.Source:AFP

“That indifference is no media conspiracy against the sport,” he said.
“It simply acknowledges the public’s lack of interest. There is no audience for cricket reports and, going on my last visit to a Sussex home game at Hove, precious little audience of any kind.
“Don’t blame the mainstream media. Newspaper content — especially lack of newspaper content — reflects an uncomfortable reality about the growing unpopularity of a game I have loved all my life.”
There are also domestic threats to the state of cricket in Australia.

Bad weather and the marketability of a under-strength West Indies team combined to make the series a huge disappointment for Cricket Australia, especially following the third Trans-Tasman “pink-ball” Test between Australia and New Zealand which attracted record crowds of 123,736 across three days of cricket.
The Adelaide Test captured the headlines, but poor crowds in Brisbane, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne last summer have seen Cricket Australia slash ticket prices for this summer’s home Test series against Pakistan and South Africa.

The strength of the opposition has a massive influence on the strength of Test cricket and the strength of Cricket Australia’s summer product.
The state of Australia’s own domestic cricket competitions have also been conveniently overshadowed by the overwhelming success of the Big Bash.

The Gabba Test.Source:News Limited

While the Twenty20 competition is flying, the Sheffield Shield and domestic one-day cup have already been reduced to the “niche sports” Greenslade fears his English game will amount to.
But it is impossible not to think Australian cricket is on a good wicket when you look at the 2015-16 Big Bash tournament.
Record ratings with a national average of 1.1 million viewers per Big Bash match made the Twenty20 phenomenon the most watched domestic sporting league in Australia.

The 2015-16 tournament’s average crowd figures of 29,000 also placed the Big Bash second behind the AFL (33,000) in average turnstile figures per game.
It’s the reason the Big Bash broadcast rights are expected to at least double to more than $40 million per year when Channel 10’s five-year contract expires.
On top of that, Cricket Australia got a jump on Australia’s other top sporting organisations with the development of its women’s competition.

The Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) was elevated onto Channel 10’s primary channel during the summer and attracted a peak national audience of 439,000 and a top crowd of 14,611.

The future.Source:Getty Images
Cricket Australia has been less boastful about the crowds and television numbers for its other domestic competitions.
The Daily Telegraph recently quoted a “senior cricket Australia official” who admitted the success of the Big Bash was partly the result of the summer’s miserable Test television and crowd numbers.
The other concerning threat to the health of Test cricket is the emergence of Twenty20 cricket and the potential pull of a rebel cricket league unsanctioned by the ICC.

It’s already happened in the West Indies where superstars, including Chris Gayle, have put their Test careers on hold to focus on earning top dollar as an international T20 mercenary.

Australian opener David Warner has also previously admitted he would be tempted by the huge dollars he could potentially earn by moving to a breakaway cricket competition — reportedly as much as $50 million for his first contract.
As long as Test cricket is able to convince its greatest athletes like Warner that Test cricket is the game’s ultimate pinnacle the game appears safe, but the cracks are there.