What are these?BESIEGED one-day cricket copped another hammering last night.
Despite dodgy weather in Melbourne, the biggest crowd of the season piled into the MCG to watch Australian clash with Pakistan in a one-off Twenty20 match.
More than 60,000 turned up, dwarfing one-day crowds around the country this summer.
Little more than half that number are expected for tomorrow's one-day game at the MCG to watch the West Indies in the first of a five-match one-day series.
Last night's crowd beat the 59,206 who turned up on Boxing Day for the beginning of the first Test against Pakistan.
But the biggest threat to one-day international crowds this summer has been the vibrant and ever-growing state-based Big Bash.
With greater promotion and the addition of international stars, including popular West Indian captain Chris Gayle playing for Western Australia, there was a surge in support.
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So much so that 43,125 turned up at the MCG to watch Victoria play Tasmania in a Big Bash match in mid-January.
It is the third-biggest crowd of the summer and will remain so if Sunday's one-dayer against the West Indies does not beat it.
The biggest one-day crowd so far this summer is 30,000 in Sydney for a match against Pakistan.
NSW Big Bash crowds were almost as good for matches at the Olympic Stadium, with 29,000 turning up to the first match and 26,000 the second, although serious questions have been asked about the number of free or heavily discounted tickets handed out.
In Adelaide and Perth Big Bash crowds comfortably beat those for one-day internationals.
At the WACA Ground, Big Bash crowds were 15,000-17,000 while one-day crowds for the two matches against Pakistan were on and just under 14,000.
Adelaide, where capacity has been severely reduced with a major redevelopment of the western stands, almost 18,000 packed in to watch the Big Bash final against Victoria compared to 15,000 for the iconic Australia Day one-day match, against Pakistan.
Brisbane was also a close-run thing, attracting less than 20,000 for the match against Pakistan, the worst one-day crowd for an Australian game in ages. The Gabba's best Big Bash crowd was almost 18,000
For most of the past decade one-day and Twenty20 matches involving Australia at the Gabba have attracted well over 30,000, with a ground record of almost 40,000 against South Africa four years ago.
One-day crowds in Melbourne have fallen significantly in recent years. There hasn't been an 80,000-plus one-day crowd at the MCG for 10 years, although 78,625 turned up for a match against England three years ago.
But over the past two seasons Twenty20 internationals have completely usurped one-day games.
In 2008 a Twenty20 world record 84,041 saw Australia play India and last season more than 62,000 watched South Africa play Australia.
However, none of five one-day matches at the MCG over the past two seasons have attracted 50,000.
Despite this Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has flat-batted any suggestion that Australia will play more Twenty20 international cricket. Currently there are 10 one-day matches and three Twenty20 internationals each season.
"We're certainly very aware of the popularity of Twenty20 and we'll see that tonight," Sutherland said before last night's match.
"From our perspective we don't want to expand on the number of Twenty20 internationals at this stage.
"We're very comfortable with that number. We feel that we strike the right balance between Twenty20s and one-day games.
"There is an opportunity to create a window for the Big Bash (with Australian players) but that's probably a couple of years away.
"The principle that we have to come back to is that with these domestic Twenty20 competitions, international cricket must come first. International cricket is the pinnacle of our sport."
Sutherland was unable to say precisely why one-day crowds were falling.
"There is a lot of good cricket on offer," he said. "Test-match crowds are increasing. I certainly wouldn't be signing any death knells of one-day cricket. I thought it was a pretty good crowd in Sydney, 30,000-plus
"Crowds are just one indicator of popularity.
"There's nothing in our review of ratings and discussions with Channel Nine to suggest there's any sort of declining interest in the one-day game."
Nine's head of sport Steve Crawley is delighted with the ratings for one-day cricket.
"I was surprised at how healthy they were," he said.
"This year they've performed well given what we had. Then you look at the calendar and you've got the Ashes, India and South Africa coming (over the next three years)."
Nine's ratings of between 1 million and 1.5 million per match are equal to NRL finals, if not the Grand Final or State of Origin.
Likewise, Fox Sports ratings for the Big Bash have gone through the roof and now stand beside numbers for their big AFL and NRL games.
While pay television comes off a much lower base than free-to-air television, Big Bash ratings are up 30 per cent and are regularly well over 300,000.
Director of Fox Sports Channels Soames Treffry is equally delighted
"We took a punt on it to try and grow it," he said of the Big Bash, claiming the addition of high-profile overseas imports created greater interest and awareness.
"I'm excited about what it does for state cricket."
Cricket Victoria chief executive Tony Dodemaide has a simple suggestion to improve the Big Bash: play more of it.
Dodemaide was intimately involved in the development of Twenty20 cricket during his time as head of cricket at the Marylebone Cricket Club a decade ago and was desperate for it to be introduced when he returned to Australia as chief executive of the WACA. Thanks to Dodemaide, on January 12, 2005 Australia's first Twenty20 game was played at the WACA Ground between the Western Australia and Victoria. It drew a sell-out crowd of 20,700.
"Whatever the question is, the answer is Twenty20," Dodemaide, a former Australian all-rounder, said at the time. He maintains that view.
"The cricket industry has been locked into this business model where the international programming has been underpinning all of our business and what we can put back into the sport.
"We're now being faced with a situation where that might change. We might have something with eight teams which is similar to an A-League or a Super 14s rugby, something where we can control the programming and it can be a very serious business where tens of thousands of people are coming along and television rights are worth something significant."
AuthorTopic: Twenty20 a vision of cricket's future (Read 155 times)
February 07, 2007, 11:59:03 AM