Given O'Donnell is averaging 15 with the bat, and striking at 106, it's hardly proven to be a successful strategy so far.
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2024–25 NZ domestic season
- Thread starter ataraxia
- Start date
wellAlbidarned
International Coach
yeah the trend in the IPL is having a couple of designated "spin hitters" to float in the batting order to dissuade teams from trying to slip in cheap overs like this, but the smash hasn't caught on yet
jcas0167
International Regular
Or maybe Pat Cummins's long lost brother?
Good crowd today.
I've just finished a conversation elsewhere asking about why SS crowds are so low, comparing to the likes of the BBL.
Firstly, Auckland has a similar population to Adelaide, so the sheer scale of crowds should be tuned down. This is before you even consider the nature of NZ domestic sporting crowds or the relatively lower profile of SS historically. I saw through the BBL stats for this season & saw the average attendance of just under 23000. If you scale that down to NZ's population, you get a rough average of 4500, which is probably a solid crowd at most venues & probably sells out a few.
I've just finished a conversation elsewhere asking about why SS crowds are so low, comparing to the likes of the BBL.
Firstly, Auckland has a similar population to Adelaide, so the sheer scale of crowds should be tuned down. This is before you even consider the nature of NZ domestic sporting crowds or the relatively lower profile of SS historically. I saw through the BBL stats for this season & saw the average attendance of just under 23000. If you scale that down to NZ's population, you get a rough average of 4500, which is probably a solid crowd at most venues & probably sells out a few.
I saw a really good point in Dylan Cleaver's substack/newsletter, where he had a quote from an unnamed high-ranking NZ sporting administrator. They said part of the issues with no Test cricket and very little international cricket in Auckland, our biggest population base, is they get out of the habit of going to the cricket.
Sport is habitual, anything in life is habitual. If you're a season ticket holder for the Warriors, Blues, Auckland FC whatever, you go each week without thinking about it. You buy merch, you post about it online, you talk about it, you keep going in the future. You're a marketer's dream. But young kids, families, people in Auckland haven't been able to go to a Test in nigh-on 7 years unless they drive 2-3 hours south. There's no momentum to it. That's a massive hindrance to cricket in this country. If you love or hate Auckland, it NEEDS a proper stadium and enough games.
So god knows how you're supposed to get a groundswell of interest in a sport where you don't see the big names in Super Smash much, you really don't get them much at international level, either. Hell, they're lucky cricket is free to air on TVNZ. Imagine if it was on SKY, there were bugger all games in Auckland and our team was struggling? People would just lose interest.
Big Bash no doubt has more money but it also has better ideas, and benefits from more fervour around the sport in that country, which is because it's run better...not because of its size or anything else.
There's absolutely zero - zero - reason you can't get people to grounds on match day. Look at Auckland FC.