County Crowds

[chekmeout]

In this age of dying first-class cricket... I was just wondering which are the most well-supported counties in terms of attendance figures and club memberships? Also, which are the worst-supported?

Even in other parts of the world like Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies, India etc. which are the extremely well-supported domestic sides and which sides barely get a couple of people to watch their games?

 

[Pratters]

Domestic matches are played to empty stands in India. A sharp contrast to some of the famous matches in the past, specially finals which were played to packed houses. Domestic cricket was very famous when it was divided along religious lines and known as Pentangular (the hindus, muslims, christians, parsis, rest) played to packed houses, before the congress ablished it around 1950.

Nowadays there is almost no crowd at the venues. But if Tendulkar or the star players turn up crowd levels increase. Two blocks were full when Ganguly was playing a zonal one day match or a match for his state two-three years ago in which I happened to go.

A recent benefit match where most Indian stars played in was in packed houses.

The Indian public would eat up domestic cricket if its marketted well. The BCCI hasnt recognised the propsect of getting money from domestic matches and till that happens, the scenario wont change.

I have seen columns by Bhogle, Amrit Mathur, Raju Bharatan in the sportstar for the past 10 years on how the domestic structure needs to be improved. We know that. Any cricket folowed could see it.

Bring in good marketing, broadcast the matches on tv, have international stars available. You have a winner of a domestic competition in India.

 

[superkingdave]

Lancashire have the most members in England, i can't find the exact figure but i think its about 13,000

 

[sledger]

its a poor state of affairs that needs a remedy thats all i can say, 20twenty crowds are helping build the popularity in the sport again thuogh, people i know often to want to go watch, but then cant because of work or school commitments etc...

 

[Richard]

Domestic-First-Class-cricket isn't a spectator sport and hasn't been for many, many years... about 70 in England. Don't know about everywhere else, maybe SJS could give us some idea in England...

 

[Langeveldt]

In this age of dying first-class cricket... I was just wondering which are the most well-supported counties in terms of attendance figures and club memberships? Also, which are the worst-supported?

Even in other parts of the world like Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies, India etc. which are the extremely well-supported domestic sides and which sides barely get a couple of people to watch their games?

Lets just say I usually bat in front of more people at college than would attend an evening session of Somerset v Whoever in the CC... Sad state of affairs..

Twenty20 does nothing for championship attendances, because if you need Twenty20, you won't be able to sit and watch a day of the Championship..

 

[Richard]

Lets just say I usually bat in front of more people at college than would attend an evening session of Somerset v Whoever in the CC... Sad state of affairs..

Not really, it's been the case for 70 years or so and it's not done any real harm yet.

 

[Swervy]

Not really, it's been the case for 70 years or so and it's not done any real harm yet.

well lack of crowds at CC games has done more harm than good

and it is a sad state of affairs when a college game draws more than a county game, as Langeveldt says

 

[chekmeout]

Well but strictly on a comparitive basis, which clubs are supported more and which hardly have any members?

 

[Swervy]

Well but strictly on a comparitive basis, which clubs are supported more and which hardly have any members?

When ever I go to a CC game at Headingley there is a fair smattering of people

I would take a guess that a team like Derbyshire struggle to get anyone in though

 

[age_master]

Australian FC matches get about 300 people per day usually. more if its a 'once a year' venue like Newcastle where they got 5000 to the match a couple of years back

ING cup games usually get 5000 i think, that again the first 2 games at telstra both drew 22000+, thats once a year though too.

 

[Richard]

well lack of crowds at CC games has done more harm than good

and it is a sad state of affairs when a college game draws more than a county game, as Langeveldt says

I'm interested in what harm it has done?
Were England really such a fantastic team in the 1920s and 30s, at the height of domestic-First-Class-cricket's popularity?

 

[Arjun]

Even though domestic matches in Australia and England are not played to large crowds, they are marketed rather well. You see advertisements, promotions and other schemes. Most importantly, all the matches are televised on the same scale as international matches, which is very good. In India, the state of affairs is so bad that the channel chosen for domestic cricket rarely covers the matches. Even if there is coverage, it's so slip-shod and unprofessional, the game stands to lose a lot of fans at this level due to the coverage. The channel itself is a joke and it shows how useless that department of the government which created it actually is. Hopefully there will be some improvements later on, but that can only happen if the BCCI changes the channel.

 

[Richard]

Don't know about Australia but the domestic-First-Class game gets about 6 or 7 games covered per season - out of... I can't remember how many.
Almost all coverage of domestic cricket in England is limited-over cricket and quite rightly - unlike the First-Class game, the domestic-one-day game can be a spectator sport, and you only need to look at the attendances at most day\night National League games to see that.

 

[Arjun]

Here, ESPN and STAR Sports actually show a lot of FC and OD cricket played in England (not this season, though). Maybe it is selective, but that is rather insulting in a way- we get to watch top-class coverage of domestic crickt in England and Australia (occasionally) but the coverage of Indian domestic cricket (if any) is awful.

 

[vic_orthdox]

We don't get any coverage of FC games in Australia AFAIK, not even on cable/pay/fox whatever you wanna call it . Not even the Pura Cup final, only domestic one day stuff.

 

[Richard]

As I guessed.

 

[chekmeout]

We don't get any coverage of FC games in Australia AFAIK, not even on cable/pay/fox whatever you wanna call it . Not even the Pura Cup final, only domestic one day stuff.

I guess that would probably change with the Twenty20 format in Australia eh?

 

[vic_orthdox]

Not sure, but I'd suggest that Channel Nine, who broadcast one day domestic games, would struggle to find space to show Twenty20 games, unless they play them on weekends in a carnival format. because they won't be showing them on weekdays, which is when I'm guessing they'd be playing these matches.

 

[chekmeout]

Which would be the least supported county in England?