Copa

The CEO of Cricket Australia has frequently mentioned his concerns for test cricket in Australia. He’s trying to develop strategies to save it in the face of 20/20 etc. He’s even proposed 4 day tests to keep it “relevant”. I'll agree with the recent concerns of the likes of Mark Waugh, Gary Kirsten, James Sutherland and others regarding where things are heading. We’ll have to agree to disagree re the current status and future of test cricket.

Vigoro used to be one of the biggest school sports in Sydney. Now there are only a few players left The only cricket with broad appeal in Australia is the Big Bash. Crowds, media coverage, broadcasting, young people, families etc James Sutherland, CEO, cricket Australia: “in many ways, there is so much doubt about Test cricket and its future I think in some parts of the world; it really is in a desperate state”

Not just geographically, but ANZ stadium is also more central demographically. The SFS is located at the far eastern part of Sydney demographically speaking.

I was at an Olympic soccer match at the Gabba cricket ground in Brisbane and there were so many Brazilians dancing on the upper level I could actually see the stadium flex. Police and security rushed in to get everyone to sit down.

Record crowd for any sport there.

There are over 1 million Pakistanis in the UAE. Test cricket is slowly fading away across many cricketing nations outside of the few matches that have cultural pull such as the ashes and a few other historic grudge matches. The cricket media has been littered with articles over the last decade pointing this out. If you’ve got information proving them wrong well so be it. In Australia, NZ, South Africa and West Indies especially test cricket will be about as popular as Vigoro 20 years from now. Australians will support the ashes but not test cricket in the same way Melbourne folk support the Storm but not rugby league.

What’s rubbish? The crowd of 54? That happened. The direction of test cricket? That’s happening too. 20/20 has taken over in Australia and taken over very quickly. Test cricket’s decline is well known and is a semi-regular feature in the media. Here’s one example. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2017/07/30/test-cricket-could-die-several-countries-dwindling-crowds-warns/

It was probably record breaking!

Those matches are exceptional. England v Pakistan had a crowd of 54 a few years back in the UAE. That’s the direction of test cricket.

Crowds are generally appalling in Australia outside of specific matches that have cultural pull. Most people have to work. It’s still popular though as they follow via the radio or online. When Australia played South Africa in Durban they got around 4000 in to watch so it’s happening in other parts of the cricket world too. Just 54 people attend England v Pakistan in the UAE a few years ago.

Test cricket

Well that escalated quickly.

In rugby league you win some, you lose some. The overlooked stuff ups appear in almost every game. It’s just unfortunate that it occurred during the act of scoring a try. It could just as easily occurred with a dodgy penalty that results in a try 30 seconds later.

It depends. I’ve had people stop their car and threaten to murder me, a motorcyclist get between my bicycle and the gutter to force me into traffic, bottles thrown at me while I cycle, lasers pointed at my eyes while cycling, pinned to a seat by an angry guy pointing the end of a hunting knife into my bare chest, a gang of youths hurl rocks at me, been shot at and a few other things... So considering I’ve seen when people go a bit aggro I really try to pick my battles and hope the real nutcases suffer something horrible at some point into the future.

You’ll be looking to see how a rugby league version works. In fact, if it goes well, many on here will be asking for something similar. On the other thing. Your streaming wifi world exists because of research conducted a few minutes from my house. In fact, they’ve made $billions from licensing agreements because the entire world thought it was a great thing to follow.