The future of Test cricket in the smaller nations

[James]

What prompted me to create this thread was I switched on the telly this afternoon and heard Ian Smith say the crowd today at Napier was 35 people at the ground. Yes 35, guess he counted them!

What does that say about the future of Test cricket in New Zealand when you have a crowd of just 35 people show up to watch a game of Test cricket?

I for one prefer the Test form of the game, but I'm wondering if this form of cricket has been lost in your average cricket fan with Twenty20 getting bigger and bigger.

Tests are obviously still huge in Australia, England and India, but how about the other Test nations? What's the future of Test cricket outside of these nations?

 

[Craig]

Ian Smith also noted that had a local competition going on that day. Would you not give them the weekend off to go to a Test match?

 

[archie mac]

I think a lot of countries have pandered to ODI for so long, they should take (admin.) a huge blame. I remember for awhile NZ played no Test cricket at all (or very little) for near on two years in their own country. And you watch very soon they will ride 20/20 into the ground as well

In my opinion the only thing keeping Test cricket going in the small nations is that the players enjoy it so much

It is down even in India, and you would not know about Pakistan as they don't play cricket there anymore

 

[fredfertang]

35!!!! - you get more at your average village green - Is that really reflective of the interest in the current series in NZ - is it the opposition? How many would be present if the game was against Australia?

Frankly I don't see how that can be sustainable - you've alarmed me now James

Say it ain't really so

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

Context is quite important.

Here goes..........

There were 35 people at the ground when play resumed after bad light had stopped play.

The key part is BOLDED.

There were a lot more before this, with most of the crowd going home thinking there would be no more play.

 

[James]

when play resumed after bad light had stopped play..

Ahh, was that the case was it. That was the first time I switched on the telly today, and presumed with the way Smith said it in a disappointed tone that this was the crowd for the day. My mistake then, although I would have thought more than 35 people would have stayed around

What was the crowd like before the bad light?

 

[fredfertang]

That's a relief to know!

 

[Xuhaib]

I thing one thing we have to look is TV ratings. If test cricket is still pulling decent TV ratings then I see there is no threat to its future since anyways most of the money now days is made through television rights and sponsors.

Test cricket to me has always seemed like a more TV friendly sport compared to ODI and 20/20. In Pakistan test matches are poorly attended but that does not mean people are not following it as it has been said that the TV viewer ship has almost matched too Odi's eventhough there is a huge difference in ground attendances of the two format.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

What was the crowd like before the bad light?

It was a decent crowd for NZ, although probably slightly less than the usual crowd at Napier.

There was local competition scheduled for today and tomorrow, so they lost possible spectators to that.

Also, with there being a construction site on one side of the ground, with one of the stands being demolished, it looked a lot emptier.

 

[James]

It was a decent crowd for NZ, although probably slightly less than the usual crowd at Napier.

There was local competition scheduled for today and tomorrow, so they lost possible spectators to that.

Also, with there being a construction site on one side of the ground, with one of the stands being demolished, it looked a lot emptier.

Oh ok - that's good to know. Thanks for clearing it up

 

[Flem274*]

Yeah, 35 people could not make the amount of noise that was made after the Edwards-Ramdin stuff up.

 

[Smudge]

*closes thread*

 

[_Ed_]

Context is quite important.

Here goes..........

There were 35 people at the ground when play resumed after bad light had stopped play.

The key part is BOLDED.

There were a lot more before this, with most of the crowd going home thinking there would be no more play.

That's fair enough. It certainly looked like the end of the day's play to me, I actually turned the TV off and didn't know play had resumed until some time after it had.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

That's fair enough. It certainly looked like the end of the day's play to me, I actually turned the TV off and didn't know play had resumed until some time after it had.

Yip, the commentators were basically acting like it was stumps as well, iirc.

 

[Uppercut]

I thing one thing we have to look is TV ratings. If test cricket is still pulling decent TV ratings then I see there is no threat to its future since anyways most of the money now days is made through television rights and sponsors.

Test cricket to me has always seemed like a more TV friendly sport compared to ODI and 20/20. In Pakistan test matches are poorly attended but that does not mean people are not following it as it has been said that the TV viewer ship has almost matched too Odi's eventhough there is a huge difference in ground attendances of the two format.

It's quite difficult to compare because ODIs and T20s are more often played at peak times for TV. I'd say that in England, there'd certainly be more following a test at noon on a thursday than would be following an ODI being played at the same time. People are also far less likely to go out of their way to check the score of an ODI in my experience. I reckon casual viewers might find ODIs more entertaining to watch, but they care more about the results of tests.

 

[Midwinter]

The danger at the moment is that the major nations will not play tests against the minnows on economic grounds given the lack of potential sponsors due to the global finanial crisis.
It sounds like several of them have have already spent the money from Stanford, the IPL and the like before they have got it.

So one way to trim their expenses is to cutbck on subsidising the minnows, which will end up of course reduce overall interest in the game over time.

Who wants to see Man U play Arsenal every week ?