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Three cheers for cricket people actually want to watch

Anthony Sharwood

by Anthony Sharwood

09 Feb 01:17pm

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Filed under: Cricket, Cricket Australia, Culture, Sport, Twenty20

49 comments

Cricket is the new footy. That’s the implicit message from Cricket Australia, who yesterday expanded the Big Bash state Twenty20 competition to eight teams, including two each from Sydney and Melbourne.

The sun sets on cricket's old era at the Big bash final. Pic: Getty Images

Traditionalists, of course, are spitting the kind of bland old-fashioned flavourless chips they always spit when anything changes in their goldfish bowl.

But they can no more stem the tide of Twenty20 cricket than they can force people to the opera en masse instead of to the iTunes store to buy the latest Lady Gaga “song”. And that’s not agenda pushing. That’s fact.

Here’s another fact. Nobody has enough time these days. This is why golf course membership is dropping. It’s why drive-through fast food exists and it’s why the receptionist I spoke to at the weather bureau yesterday said “Bureau of Meteorology” so fast I thought I’d called an Italian restaurant.

Twenty20 solves the time problem. Just like the footy, it provides two or three hours of entertainment washed down with a beer or two – but not enough to put me out of commission for work the next day. Try staying sober at a full day of test cricket – even with the midstrength cow pee they serve.

“Ah, but the best players in the country won’t always be available for T20 games due to projected clashes with Test matches,” the crusties bleat.

Who cares? I don’t expect the best when I watch a regular AFL or NRL game either, but that doesn’t stop me going. If the players are better than say, the cricketing equivalent of the Richmond Tigers or Cronulla Sharks, that’ll do me.

“Yes, but how will we nurture future Test cricketers if everyone wants to play T20?” the dinosaurs groan with an eye on the increasingly dusty Wisdens on their bookshelves.

This, I admit, is the weak part of my argument. Without doubt, the production line of future Test cricketers will be compromised with the rise and rise of Twenty20.

Young Australian cricketers, lured by the wealth of T20 both here and in the financial epicentre of the game, India, may grow up worshipping the Bhagavad Gita instead of the Baggy Green.

This is hardly ideal. But you know what? I don’t care. And the reason I don’t care is because I believe Test and T20 cricket will evolve into almost two sports, with two types of players with distinct skill sets.

And even in the worst-case-scenario where T20 totally takes over the summer, and undermines Test cricket altogether, well, hey. The world changes. And you know what else?

I’ll tell you what else. A saturation of shortened cricket might make for unmemorable matches, but I happen to think that the whole “meaningless cricket” line is the greatest load of elitist tosh imaginable in a country which is supposedly egalitarian.

Why should sport be inherently meaningful? Reduced to its parts, it’s only people getting sweaty chasing balls with sticks.

Yes, sport can be uplifting. Yes, it can be transcendent and yes, of course, there are occasions, countless occasions, when sport can be, and has been, enormously memorable. But it’s not inherently bad when it’s not any of that.

To use another analogy from popular culture, how many people go to French film festivals as opposed to the latest Hollywood explosion movie?

Let me close with an image. It’s from baseball, which will give you traditionalists yet more ammo to shoot me down with. Like you needed any.

We are in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, a small average American town not far from Boston. There, the local minor league baseball team, the Paw Sox, are effectively the reserves for the famed Boston Red Sox.

Red Sox tickets are near impossible to buy, so people come to Pawtucket’s dinky 12,000 seat McCoy Stadium. They don’t come to see a great game, or because the best players are there. In fact, most people I meet don’t even know the names of the players.

But they are here to enjoy a summer’s evening, and a beer, and a cheap hot dog, and nachos with this really scary nuclear cheese sauce.

To have a laugh and a chat and maybe hurl a bit of non-racial abuse at someone out in the field.

And they’re here to maybe see a guy smash a ball over the fence. All that and they go home with plenty of change from a $50.

The sport itself? As meaningless as it comes. But when I was there, I had this light bulb moment. Bing! And here’s what I realised.

I realised that sport isn’t about what players, or ex-players think is right for it. It about the fans. I mean, we’re always being told that the fans own the game, right?

I can’t wait for the T20 season to expand. Baseball has 160 games a year – 160! I can’t wait till the T20 season is four months long and there are 16+ teams like the footy codes, each of which play 30 or more games.

I bet you it all pays for itself. And I bet you Test cricket finds a way to survive too. Just like opera.

And if it doesn’t, well, the dinosaurs can whinge and moan all they like. We all know what happened to the dinosaurs.

Most commented

49 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Richard says:

      12:26pm | 09/02/11

      Yeah T20 is alright, but its not as good as ODI’s. For me though, the majestic scale and sweep of a Test Match, in the wider context of a full 5 game series, against an evenly matched opponent, is the superior sporting event.

      Reply

    • kj_storm says:

      12:58pm | 10/02/11

      To be honest I don’t really like the ODI’s but I really really dislike the 20/20. A game of rounders anyone?

      Give me five days to see a strategy unfold. Wits against wits. I’m happy.

    • Rocket Surgeon says:

      12:42pm | 09/02/11

      The trouble with T20 is it’s deeply unsatisfying. I fully accept some like to watch it, I don’t and if there’s less “proper” cricket I’ll just watch something else.

      Reply

    • Richard says:

      12:48pm | 09/02/11

      I think that’s the thing though, for watching on the telly, T20 isn’t as satisfying as a proper game, you’re right. But for actual live viewing, T20 is eminently more exciting, and thus more conducive to live specatatorship. Still, if I’m watching a game on a sunday on tv, I want it to mean something.

    • B says:

      07:43am | 10/02/11

      Actually, Richard you’ll find that when Australia is playing well, Test match days sell out….remember the ashes in 05/06 the first 4 days of every match were sold out! Test matches regularly attract large crowds.

      I personally see 50 over cricket being the form that will die, I mean how boring is it these days?

    • Vaunted says:

      12:43pm | 10/02/11

      T20 is the game you can get your missus and your American friends to watch. It’s over before you know it, there’s heaps of sound, popcorn, colour and movement, but there’s no subtlety or substance whatsoever. It’s a can of Diet Coke when you felt like a beer.

    • n_dude says:

      04:08pm | 10/02/11

      T20 is like a Maccas meal. It fills you up quickly but does not satisfy you. On the other hand Test cricket is like a degustation meal at a 3 hat restaurant. It not only fills you up, but it leaves you satisfied.

    • iansand says:

      12:45pm | 09/02/11

      Rugby and Rugby 7s.  Both good clean fun for different reasons.  T20 is the same.

      Reply

    • Tim says:

      12:45pm | 09/02/11

      There’s one massive problem with 20/20 cricket.
      It’s not actually that interesting anymore. There are barely any games that you would call a contest.
      Either the team batting first makes a massive score and the second team gets out cheaply trying to chase it or the team batting first makes a small score and the second team get there easily. Very few games are close.
      We need multiple innings or pinch hitters to make it more interesting.

      Reply

    • DocBud says:

      12:46pm | 09/02/11

      Thousands of poms didn’t pay thousands of dollars to come and watch T20 and ODIs, they came to watch a couple of test matches, for the full five days if necessary.

      I love cricket (I flew to Perth for the third test). I’ve seen the odd ODI but I’ve never been to a T20 and don’t plan to anytime soon.

      Reply

    • John C says:

      12:53pm | 09/02/11

      You obviously have a problem if you cannot attend a day’s cricket and fail to stay sober, even if, as you point out, the alcohol served there is weak.

      I am not a teetotaller nor are the friends with whom I watch cricket. In fact some of them are heavy social drinkers. Yet we manage to watch a day’s play, having an occasional beer, without getting pie-eyed. As do many thousands of others.

      Do you have similar problems with other sporting outings, at parties, at dinner? At home, perhaps?

      The 20/20 cricket should be ideal for you. Plenty of grog, and no need to concentrate.

      Reply

    • Budz says:

      12:53pm | 09/02/11

      Thats the great thing about a free market, people will choose which format will dominate based on viewers on TV and at the game. By the looks of it T20 is going to bring the crowds in and will expand the appeal of cricket to those who can’t bare the thought of 5 days of cricket which can end without a result.

      Me, well I prefer a good test match or series over the other formats, but if most of them are on when I’m at work, I’d rather a T20 that I can watch from 7pm-10pm after work.

      Reply

    • Arnold Layne says:

      01:20pm | 09/02/11

      I think the domestic T20 league is great.  The shame of this new version is that it’s going to replace the one thing that the Big Bash has done best - restoring State v State passion to cricket.  I care much more about NSW trying to beat Qld or Vic than I will about the Sydney Sloggers playing the Melbourne Maulers.

      By all means expand the league so they all play each other twice or something, but the State loyalty was all part of why I, and so many others, watched it.

      Reply

    • Shifter says:

      02:04pm | 09/02/11

      Ugh. Team nicknames. You’ve just hinted on one of the worst parts of sport.

      I can see the Heats and the Blazes and the Glorys and the hundreds of variations on medieval names like the have in the IPL (Kings, Knights, Royals et al).

      At least the current state nicknames were halfway decent, excluding WA.

    • Jarrod Potter says:

      08:22am | 10/02/11

      Agree with Arnold. The variety of choices for cricket these days give viewers their form of cricket they enjoy. Not a fan of Tests? Don’t watch them, go to the ODIs/T20. Vice versa. Plenty of room in cricket for everyone, traditionalists, modernists, hot WAGs, etc.

      What’s wrong about the new Big Bash is it changes the landscape too much from code to code. Still haven’t found out yet what happens with draft or auction for the league (took the bigwigs 5 hours to decide Geelong gets shafted and ODD cricket loses two rounds, talk about lazy).

      I worry about going to Etihad Stadium as a cricket venue. It doesn’t have any character whatsoever and feels the exact embodiment of commercial sport.

    • wolf says:

      01:26pm | 09/02/11

      I love my test matches but I equally love my T20s.  One dayers take too much time to watch.  If I must see pyjama cricket at least it is done in a timely manner.
      What I am appalled about however is the lack of free to air coverage of domestic cricket generally and T20’s specifically. The A-League has already consigned itself to irrelevance by going down this path and it’s sad to see the game I love follow suit.
      If cricket Australia wants to know why they have diminishing crowds at international games (and even domestic games) they should look at the accessability of the sport.
      At the risk of sounding old, when I was a boy the domestic cricket was on free to air which allowed me to engage with the state game all the way up to the international competition.  Administrators also encouraged people to come down to the ground with ‘dollar days’ and by opening the group for the last session.
      What has been missing for the last few years has been engagement with the dometic scene which leads to a ready made audience for the international game.

      Reply

    • Woodsy says:

      02:11pm | 09/02/11

      Agreed, there’s all this talk about these new up and comers but unless you have access to a live game or Pay TV, most of us just say “Who?”.  I want to be excited about the up and coming players who will be in the Aussie teams of the future, not just rely on the hype about them built up by ex-cricketers and newspaper articles.

    • Shifter says:

      02:50pm | 09/02/11

      You’d think with all these extra freeview channels someone would want to grab the TV rights to the Big Bash at least. Or maybe that’s the problem, someone actually owns the TV rights and refuses to screen the games.

    • S.L says:

      02:08pm | 09/02/11

      The one batsman this country sits up and watches in anticipation everytime he come to the crease is Dave Warner. What does he excel at? T20. What can’t he get a start in? Test match yawn fests. Even if he gets a half century and is out in 5 minutes that’s a lot more entertaining than watching a regular batsman who’s out of form hit 10 runs off 80 balls then nicks one to the keeper but judgeing by those who know better than (the selectors and commentators) I’m an idiot!

      Reply

    • B says:

      07:51am | 10/02/11

      Your not a idiot SL you just don’t undersand cricket, and thats fine. David Warner is a slogger, there’s no talent to what he does, he just swings and hopes.

      The reason why people (including people like me and I’m only 29) is that it takes talent to play the game, you can’t say “Ive only got to survive 4 overs from that bowler and he’s finished” the guy just keeps coming until you either learn to play him or you get out. It breeds patience because your not going to hit a 4 every over. It breeds fitness (try a day and a half in the field and then batting).

      Its the same for bowlers, they actually have to bowl good balls (and a series of them) to get wickets. Thats about skill and patience.

      T20 doesn’t breed any of those skills.

    • MT says:

      08:32am | 10/02/11

      Clearly you have not idea about how to enjoy the skill it takes to concertrate and pick the right ball to play along the ground or into the gap instead of using some ill conceived shot that comes off the edge and nobody knows where it will go. Warner will never be anything but!

    • Josh says:

      10:13am | 10/02/11

      MT, B you haven’t play cricket have you?

      For the record this season Warner also “slogged” a 200 not out in a four day game for the NSW seconds.

    • Wally says:

      11:48am | 10/02/11

      Wow, the NSW seconds Josh! That should be good enough to get him in the test team.  The test team is the next step up from NSW seconds.  Warner is a slogger and nothing else.  Call me a dinosaur if you like but I have little or no interest in the 20/20 hit and giggle and will have even less interest next season when the “franchises” are playing rather then the states.

    • Josh says:

      12:40pm | 10/02/11

      It’s a level better than anything you have ever played Wally.

      Seriously if you “dinosaurs” ever come up with a valid point it’d be lonely.

      How many people here bemoaning Domestic T20 have even been to a Shield game? That’s why they are doing it.

    • Harquebus says:

      02:15pm | 09/02/11

      The currently happening economic collapse of the world’s economy will kill sport. Hooray! Pity it had to come at such a high price but then, what price do you put on happiness.

      Reply

    • Bruiser Brody says:

      02:35pm | 09/02/11

      your right, who the hell cares about established rules, tradition, bats, balls - just give the people what they want - two guys in monster trucks smashing an object at each other with 2 bikini models in the tray!
      just keep appealing to the lowest common denominator and we’ll all be better off right?
      T20, to play, is a mugs game - and while i agree its interesting to watch, it has totally perverted the nature of the game

      and then to have the idiodicy to compare it to baseball??? Where matches can sometimes stretch out past midnight on a Weds??? Where you could be in danger of seeing a 1-0 spectacle after 4 hours??
      hows that condensed-for-idiots-version of baseball going? oh, thats right, it doesn’t exist - ppl in the State watch 160 games in its full boring glory because of tradition!! Its ingrained in the culture, as cricket is here - difference being, there’s is a multi billion dollar industry where the national economy has the wealth to support itself - whereas ours is just over the million mark… so when ridiculous cash comes from the coruption capital (aka India) our ingrained tradition has to suddenly bow down to the almighty dollar and start playing a perverted form of a traditional game

      weak sport, weak philosophy, weak-minded

      Reply

    • Budz says:

      04:18pm | 09/02/11

      What rubbish! The reason CA is expanding the big bash has nothing to do with India. It’s because they give people what the people want. That’s the great thing about a free market. People watched on TV and went to these games (pretty amazing crowds for state cricket!) to show they wanted more, so CA is giving them more.

    • Bobster says:

      03:18pm | 09/02/11

      All valid points, Anthony.

      But 20/20 is still shit.

      Reply

    • Pommy Nick says:

      03:18pm | 09/02/11

      Alas, clearly the fact that you can not enjoy a sporting/social event unless you’ve had a few drinks speaks volumes about your own, imbecilic mental abilities. Unfortunately, anything requiring a greater degree of concentration than placidity watching a muddy tractor pull would seriously tax your pre-school levels of attentiveness. Indeed as with many uninspired 5 year olds, I’m fairly sure you completely unable to focus on anything unless it rings; dances and takes that annoyingly difficult task of having to think for yourself away from you. Heck, even eating with a knife and fork must prove hideously tedious.

      Poor thing. Hopefully, they can find a playpen for you, free from the bothersome little chores of refinement and complexity where you can ‘enjoy’ your lobotomised Happy Meal life.

      Reply

    • Huey says:

      03:19pm | 09/02/11

      I don’t like it so I wont watch it. In fact I wont watch cricket of any stripe that involves teams from anywhere except.England, New Zealand and Australia. (except for some world cup minnows) the rest are corrupt, corrupting or completely venal. If they were not John Howard would still be on the ICC.

      Reply

    • mary monica roche says:

      03:54pm | 09/02/11

      the big bash was in parliamentary question time.

      Reply

    • AFR says:

      03:55pm | 09/02/11

      Why does Victoria get two teams when they contribute bugger all to our national teams?

      Reply

    • Alfred Deakin says:

      06:56am | 10/02/11

      Probably to dilute them so they don’t dominate like they have in the three forms of domestic cricket recently. Few Victorians get picked for Australia - one consequence of that is that they have dominated the domestic cricket scene for some years.

    • B says:

      07:56am | 10/02/11

      Maybe so Alfred, but stuff me why they haven’t got picked for the Oz team, what did Cam White, David Hussey, Brad Hodge, Dirk Nannes, Shane Harwood etc etc deserve to not get picked?

      As much as this pains me to say, Victoria have been the dominant state for about 5 or 6 years so why aren’t there many Victorians in the team? (ps though we still beat them by an innings and 300 in a shield final….go the Bulls!)

    • Justin says:

      04:09pm | 09/02/11

      My biggest issue with T20 is that it’s played at night. I like my cricket during the day, leaving the night free to watch & do other things. Weekend days when T20 is on tend to be boring with nothing else of note on Grandstand.

      I’m not alone - the casual cricket fan who will listen to it on the radio tends to only listen during the day, so there’s an audience being swept aside in an effort to find a new audience.

      And don’t get me started on James Sutherland’s perverse obsession with day-night test matches. He can go, along with Hilditch & Nielsen. And why isn’t Langer getting the axe as batting coach? He was shown up by a 17 year old kid.

      Reply

    • DMR says:

      04:39pm | 09/02/11

      It’s about the fans, you say?  Anyone who thinks the domestic T20 league proposed is good for cricket is no fan of the game.  And anyone whose attention span can’t extend past a T20 match isn’t going to be dedicated enough to anything to stump up for memberships year after year like the ‘dinosaurs’ you whinge about - they’ll be off to the next flashy new thing before the ink is dry on the new marketing-designed logos.  Already I’ve seen mexican waves at T20 games, so apparently even that format isn’t exciting enough for the likes of you.

      I loved the Big Bash and attended all of the Redbacks’ games this season. It revived state rivalries and put much-needed cash into the state associations’ coffers, which they can (hopefully) spend developing the next generation of Test cricketers, the true pinnacle of the game.  But I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay money to some corporate franchise to watch the Adelaide (insert corny American nickname) play against whoever stumped up enough cash to poach SA’s best players.

      Reply

    • Alfred Deakin says:

      06:59am | 10/02/11

      Yes, Cricket Australia has captured the goose that laid the golden egg and is about to strangle it. By expanding the competition into meaningless “franchises” they will lose the one thing you need in sport - fans to actually care about the team. As DMR points out, who will follow the Adelaide “S Happens” Arrows ?

    • lang says:

      05:27pm | 09/02/11

      yeah yeah lets just dumb down something to appeal to the masses for a few minutes until the next fad catches their increasingly low attention span.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      06:45pm | 09/02/11

      Its like the difference between baseball and badminton, boxing and karate and sailing and cannooeing : the footwork is all different.
      (Actually, isn’t sport all about the feet, and aren’t the best sportspeople taught from the ‘ground’ up ?)
      The only similarity between Test cricket and crappy/20 is both use a flat bat. Even the running between wickets serves a different purpose.
      Test Batsmen, furthermore, have between balls time to think, reflect and plan. But the green and golds can only respond, (bit like the little-lady to her hubby.) And those 20’s spend so much time pinching each other’s arse and hugging, i reckon the telecast should be R rated.
      Test players are Men, and they do what men are designed to : win by stealth.
      (But the other lot can mop floors quicker that anyone else on the planet.)

      Reply

    • Brent says:

      06:46pm | 09/02/11

      I think T20’s are great; they are the silly shiny things that distract the retards and leave the adults in peace to watch test cricket.

      Reply

    • Amber says:

      08:55pm | 09/02/11

      I prefer Test cricket by a large margin but here’s a suggestion for T20 re teams being bowled out cheaply and spoiling a contest. How would it go if the team that was bowled out could elect to bat again (picking up where it left off but using extra batsmen) at the cost of a penalty eg. lose some runs off their total?

      Reply

    • RJB says:

      09:03pm | 09/02/11

      Hit and giggle is not cricket and it is comforting that the word is disappearing from the concept.

      Reply

    • Bruce says:

      11:13pm | 09/02/11

      I am no dinosaur, but there is only one real cricket which is “Test Cricket”. The other forms are just played for quick fix, revenue raising, entertainment purposes.

      Reply

    • Backyard Cricketer says:

      07:16am | 10/02/11

      Real cricket is plalyed on the local oval and free to everyone.  The rest is just a money making spectator sport.  Time for everyone to start playiong the game rather than watching it.

      Reply

    • Macca says:

      07:45am | 10/02/11

      T20 brings a much more athletic focus to a game which traditionally has featured players of the physique of your average sunday lawn bowler.

      However, a sport shouldn’t be all over in a matter of seconds. Test Cricket and all the football codes can feature matches defined by a moment of brilliance, but there is always the opportunity for the other team to claw their way back into it. T20, can be all over in a matter of seconds despite the game just starting. England 2/0 in the first over, that’s houses. Test Cricket, even One-Dayers, we consistently see teams can from the brink of defeat and snatch a victory and uggh… I’ve walked straight into Sharwood’s meaningful argument.

      I enjoy T20, but the longer the game the more meaningful. Because I can drink more piss.

      Yeah, holeproof Argument that.

      Reply

    • Aussie Born and Bred says:

      08:44am | 10/02/11

      T20 is dumbed-down backyard cricket only enjoyed by ADHD sufferers who can’t sit still long enough to watch a ODI or Test match.

      Reply

    • josh says:

      10:25am | 10/02/11

      Far from being a T20 sceptic and hater. I think this is the thing that cricket needs.
      Cricket is one of the only sports where it thrives on national match ups to survive. Every other major sporting code has a club based competition. Cricket needs the same.
      If handled right there is no reason why state one day and shield matches couldn’t be mean more than they do now. I mean for all it’s worth the current State level comps are just glorified clubs. I think they should be representative teams not clubs. What needs to happen is a true league, where teams can recruit whoever they want/afford. That will make a club based comp work. i.e. Cameron White plays for the Brisbane T20 team. But then gets selected for his Nominated State for those representative matches, like League’s State of Origin. If it just purely NSW players get into the NSW teams and QLD players in the Brisbane team then it’s a continuation of the status quo.
      I can’t wait to take the kids next year.

      Reply

    • hot tub political machine says:

      10:59am | 10/02/11

      T20 seriously makes no sense to me. As far as determining which team is better - it seems to do as good a job of that as flipping a coin. Also no one who goes to the game could tell you who won about 20 minutes afterward. It just weird - I mean if you dislike sport so much you can only handle it when its turned into a bizzaro version of Kiss concert, why not just watch a DVD of a Kiss concert instead.

      Reply

    • preiswerturlaub.net says:

      07:16am | 23/02/11

      Probably Leave,wave soil as evidence patient consumer depend every customer equal match justice prevent paint personal article holiday practice scene concern university window social hence they council tend traditional room sit knee reader result following farmer those thought ignore class replace male invite offer useful tiny research or director sir strange campaign hard organise release period single grant model parliament expression deep there less complete replace ignore round tear past burn appeal human condition high intend fair see little fire more pupil union sexual site heavy progress strike

      Reply
 
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