The Big Bash: Can Cricket Cash In?

[fredfertang]

The Big Bash: Can Cricket Cash In?

In the wake of the success of enoyed by Australia's Big Bash CricketWeb's Cameron Burge asks the inevitable question.

 

[Furball]

How successful are we talking?

I was a pretty big skeptic before the competition started; I haven't paid much attention to the competition, aside from knowing that the Perth Scorchers reached the final, losing to one of the Sydney sides, because it's clashed with Test cricket and no TV channel in the UK picked up the rights, which was a shame because I was looking forward to supporting the Perth Scorchers if I happened to catch some games.

 

[Burgey]

There were usually more than 15K people at the matches, plus it was live on Yatesyvision. it was pretty bloody popular for an Australian domestic comp. Some matches had really big crowds. I think it was a bigger success than CA thought it would be.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Interesting read. "Connect": is the Burgemeister outed as an EM Forster fan?

One thing tho, it appears under fred's byline at the top? Shome mishtake shurely?

 

[Burgey]

I was playing Connect Four with the twins.....

 

[uvelocity]

People have low attention spans, I think if CA marketed domestic cricket and even tests & ODI's as aggressively as they did with the bigbash there would be an increase in crowds across the board.

Also one thing which has bugged me in the past is the fun police at the cricket, whereas the fun seemed to be a large focus for the bigbash.

 

[Jono]

Was the BBL more of a success, in terms of ratings, attendance and obviously ultimately monetary value, than the regular state-team Big Bash?

I imagine with Warney playing it would have been, but am curious if this can be confirmed.

 

[James]

One of the things I wondered was, with the League, Union, Soccer, Basketball and probably other sports as well containing NZ team(s) in the Aussie competition. In the next few years how likely would it be before we see NZ teams or even SA teams playing a domestic style cricket series?

 

[TNT]

I thought the article didnt really have a good understanding of how cricket works. CA started the BBL and its up to the relevent cricket states to capitalise on the interest.

 

[Burgey]

I thought the article didnt really have a good understanding of how cricket works. CA started the BBL and its up to the relevent cricket states to capitalise on the interest.

Yes, I agree. After CA starting a non-State based league which was a roaring success, the various State bodies are the ones who are responsible for ensuring the success is transformed into burgeoning Shield crowds of about 50 per day, instead of the 25 we get now.

 

[Crazy Sam]

Yes, I agree. After CA starting a non-State based league which was a roaring success, the various State bodies are the ones who are responsible for ensuring the success is transformed into burgeoning Shield crowds of about 50 per day, instead of the 25 we get now.

They could do this now if the grounds allowed people to bring their pets in.

 

[TNT]

If you wanted to increase the amount of people going to sheild matches then the obvious changes would be to reduce the match to 20 overs per team with single innings, limit bowlers to 4 overs each, quicken up the match to 15 overs per hour, play lots of loud music, have lots of crown interacting gimmicks, start the match in the early afternoon.

Other than that I dont see how you can expect spectators to watch a 20/20 match and then think it would be fun to go and watch a whole day of cricket and only see half of one innings. Its not so much that 20/20 is so popular its just that four day games are not very interesting and spectators dont want to watch them no matter how much you tell the spectators that its the purest form of cricket.

 

[Burgey]

If you wanted to increase the amount of people going to sheild matches then the obvious changes would be to reduce the match to 20 overs per team with single innings, limit bowlers to 4 overs each, quicken up the match to 15 overs per hour, play lots of loud music, have lots of crown interacting gimmicks, start the match in the early afternoon.

Other than that I dont see how you can expect spectators to watch a 20/20 match and then think it would be fun to go and watch a whole day of cricket and only see half of one innings. Its not so much that 20/20 is so popular its just that four day games are not very interesting and spectators dont want to watch them no matter how much you tell the spectators that its the purest form of cricket.

*Sigh*

So just give up on it then? You don't need a crowd the size of those at the BBL to make the Shield a success. The issue isn't just the Shield either. Junior cricket numbers are down, there are less people playing it. You have a new format of the game which has been a success. The issue is whether it's possible to turn that support into greater interest in playing the game and supporting it in general.

Or whether you just give up.

 

[Crazy Sam]

Shield cricket will never have big crowds again with the unavailability of the Aussie players to play most of it. I think people still care about it and follow the scores but certainly not enough to want to go to a day of it.

BBL is where it's at for domestic cricket crowds in Australia - and does it really matter if it's only the one format that gets big crowds, so long as the internationals are still well-supported?

 

[uvelocity]

Junior cricket numbers are down, there are less people playing it.

Numbers up here at all time highs ftr

probably due to smart cookies escaping (or rather moving) the ratrace.

 

[TNT]

*Sigh*

So just give up on it then? You don't need a crowd the size of those at the BBL to make the Shield a success. The issue isn't just the Shield either. Junior cricket numbers are down, there are less people playing it. You have a new format of the game which has been a success. The issue is whether it's possible to turn that support into greater interest in playing the game and supporting it in general.

Or whether you just give up.

Does your local cricket have a 20/20 competition that lasts more then a weekend, has your local association promoted 20/20 cricket to get new players.

 

[howardj]

Given that:

- CA marketed it to within an inch of its life
- It had a first-year novelty factor
- Drawcards like Warne, Hayden etc probably won't play next year
- There is no window for the main 12 Aussie cricket stars...

...I think we should be careful not to overstate the popularity/appeal of it

That said, it's good to see CA doing something to attract new young fans to the game

As the article states, hopefully those young ones will stay with cricket

 

[Burgey]

Does your local cricket have a 20/20 competition that lasts more then a weekend, has your local association promoted 20/20 cricket to get new players.

It has all sorts of things. It is the biggest junior cricket association in NSW, probably Australia. Unless that's changed in recent times.

I think you are well and truly missing the point of the article, or more probably just choosing to ignore it. I'll type slowly to help you out.

The point is whether the popularity of the Big Bash can be somehow transformed into support for other forms of the game, and increasing player numbers, not whether you just bung on more T20 competitions at other levels. You seem to be in the "it cannot be done so don't try" school, which is fine. I happen to think they should try, and if people have any other ideas about how they might go about it, then I'd like to hear them.

 

[Burgey]

Numbers up here at all time highs ftr

probably due to smart cookies escaping (or rather moving) the ratrace.

Where abouts are you located mate?

I think we hit the all time peak in our district after the 2005 Ashes series. At that point there were, I think, 21 senior competitions in the district, most of them having eight teams, others with seven. Now there are 15, all bar four of which have seven teams. So there's been a substantial drop off here.

There's a real **** fight for grounds too, with the various football codes wanting to lengthen their seasons. The greedy bastards actually had their soccer GFs go into the first week of cricket this season, which meant there were eight forfeits in the first round of the various competitions. I know a number of the NSW associations are all pretty concerned with the way it's heading at the moment.

 

[uvelocity]

Where abouts are you located mate?

Gold coast. We struggle big time for grounds up here, but every year there are more senior teams, don't have anything to do with juniors but I had a talk to someone a while back who is and they reckon they have more players than ever.

My club has 6 senior teams, 1x u10 & u11, 2x u12, 1x u13, 2x u14,u15,u17 - that's 15 sides. The biggest club here has 19 sides. There's 14 clubs. I think the population here is about 600k right now.