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May 16, 2011Posted on 05/16/2011 in Australian Cricket
Dwarfed by the son
From Philip and Alan Sutherland, Australia
Australians do not have a great track record in watching cricket not played by their national team
© Getty ImagesIn 1858, the talented allrounder Tom Wills was posed with something of a problem, namely, how to keep his fellow Victorian cricketers fit during the off season. The solution he helped find was the birth of a robust new sport in Australian Rules, said to be something of a mix of rugby, Gaelic football and the similar pastimes involving possum-skin balls of some of the indigenous peoples of the Western District of Victoria.
Over a century and a half since, cricket and the sport it helped spawn, Australian Rules, are uneasy bed-mates. Together, they rule the sporting landscape in Australia’s four “southern” states – Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia. Yet, despite sharing grounds they inhabit totally different environs. In 1997, Australia’s regular free-to-air broadcaster of cricket, Channel Nine, had something of a problem too. Its problem was how to keep viewers entertained during the 40-minute Test match lunch breaks. The answer was The Cricket Show, a half-hour magazine-style programme hosted by former Australian allrounder, Victoria captain and Australian Rules footballer, Simon O’Donnell. As successful as it has been, however, perhaps The Cricket Show will ultimately tell less about the state of the game in Australia than another programme from WIN TV, a Channel Nine affiliate in Victoria – The Country Footy Show.
Of course, The Country Footy Show has nothing to do with cricket and therein lies the point. There is no country cricket show, nor will there ever be. Footy may have began partly as a means of keeping flannelled fools fit in the winter, but now cricket is more likely to be a way of keeping footballers entertained in the summer. Australia’s pre-eminent farming paper, The Weekly Times, tells a similar story. Its sporting section is packed with country football ladders, stories and statistics for six months of the year. This includes a small Legends of the Bush column which looks at prominent people and families in the country game. When the cricket season comes around, the only bit that is left is this one, small column, now converted to the bat and ball. This different reporting only reflects the different perceptions of football and cricket. The situation is similar in the rugby states of New South Wales and Queensland as well.
Football is the realm of club loyalties, whether to Melbourne FC in the AFL or South Sydney FC in the NRL and it is clubs that people are most passionate about. That cricket has survived so well Down Under has more to do with its long history of international rivalry, especially with the Ashes and in more modern times against the West Indies at their peak. How this support will transfer to a local IPL-style 20-over competition is difficult to say. This season of the IPL is not being telecast in Australia. In previous seasons, it’s unlikely to have attracted massive audiences here. Australians do not have a great track record in watching cricket not played by their national team. Only the short stuff of the Big Bash came close. To many Australians, the presence of the likes of Shane Warne in the IPL has probably more curiosity-value than anything else.
The coming season is to have two 20-over teams in both Sydney and Melbourne, a radical departure from the strictly state structure that cricket has maintained. Club loyalties in the IPL are reshaping cricket and a similar process is beginning here. We cannot simply blame the IPL, however. Our own attitudes are at least equally responsible for the changes occurring. As a young footballer from the club we support was once reported as saying, “It was nice to be involved (briefly) with cricket again – you forget how much you enjoyed it.” As cricket is dwarfed by its back-sheets son, we forget too that cricket needs space, not just for grounds and deeds, but thoughts as well. When Australians stand at a cricket match and talk footy, do we ever stop to think that the reverse, irrespective of the different time-lengths involved, hardly ever happens.
Posted by: Ben Carter at May 16, 2011 10:54 PM
Hi Phil and Alan - I am wondering whether I might be able to make use of this post in a local newspaper I write for? It's a regional publication based in northern Victoria. I'd love to run it either in the print edition or on our website as it says something vital about the relationship between cricket and footy, particularly at country level. Could you please let me know via a reply on this page as to whether that would be possible? I'd be happy to give both of you a writing credit and mention that it was first published on CricInfo. Thanks again for a great article and for your time.
Posted by: SRT_GENIUS at May 17, 2011 1:54 AM
That's exactly it - "irrespective of the different time-lengths involved" - in cricket, you've time for everything while the match is on! In footy or even T20, you don't've time for anything!
Posted by: Shiril at May 17, 2011 2:55 AM
The one thing you have not mentioned is the mismanagement of the game. AFL shows games on free to air channels(mind you by the last count there are over 28 free to air digital channels)during there season on weekends and weekdays. What does CA do? It does not even broadcast the Cricket World Cup! It cuts feed from all those mataches where the stadiums have not filled to a percenatge of capacity. But the Foxtel viewers can see the game.
What do think happens when you piss off viewers? I know everyone complains about the Indian board. But whether by fortune or accident the cost of pay TV in India is negligible and all internatioanl games are avaible for viewing. Now that is something to think about.
Posted by: redneck at May 17, 2011 3:47 AM
so, so true!!! even the last line about talking footy at the cricket! and that cricket maintains its popularity here primarily because footy doesnt allow us to stick one up the poms! i love both sports but have no interest in this big bash franchise thing they are trying to do. the ipl works in india as i dont believe india had much in the way of domestic rivalry in sport apart from maybe the ranji, where as here the market is already overflowing with this type of set up. crickets popular as it offers something different to the avg. aussie spectator and i really hope that this big bash thing doesnt kill that off!
Posted by: Philip & Alan Sutherland at May 17, 2011 9:32 AM
To Ben Carter: If Cricinfo don't mind your newspaper using it, it is okay by us with proper attribution. Tried to google you and various regional papers but to no avail.
Philip & Alan Sutherland, NE Vic.
Posted by: Gizza at May 17, 2011 9:46 AM
Cricket is also the game that unites the country. Winter football are divided by state and partially by class/history (in the case of rugby). With all due respect to Aussie Rules fans, much as I love the Swans, the AFL can never stir the passion of Sydneysiders. League and Union will remain strong for a very long time. Comparing statium figures isn't the best way to determine the health of the various winter sports because Sydney unlike Melbourne, Brisbane and other cities doesn't have astrong sport watching culture where you regularly go to the game on the weekend. Look at cricket as an example. Most of Australia's best cricketers come from NSW but the SCG is never as full as the MCG. Sydney is more of a sports-playing culture.
Anyway back to the topic at hand, the idea that cricket unites the country is related to its international character. Personally, if the two new teams were non-capital cities (Say Newcastle, Geelong or Gold Coast) I would been excited about the new Big Bash.
Posted by: DJ at May 17, 2011 9:52 AM
I doubt if T20 will ever provide the kind of entertainment as a game of footy does. It takes a long time to create the kind of rivalry between teams which makes footy a great game. Moreover I doubt if things like technique, fitness, agility and the other sporty values, count as much in a T20 game as it counts in a game of footy. This is a reason why T20 might never be a success as much as Footy is in Australia.
Posted by: Meety at May 23, 2011 2:29 AM
@Gizza - spot on regarding Sydney v Melbourne & crowd attendances. I think it has a bit to do with the weather as well. I mean what else are you going to do in Melbourne on a Sunday afternoon other than watching your favourite side?
I would say that there is hope for the franchises to build up rivalry as to a certain extent this was achieved in Super Rugby. I know that most of the sides were created along state & territorial lines, but in NZ & Sth Africa there were alot of re-drawing of old provincial lines. In Super Rugby in OZ we have seen the advent of the Brumbies, Force & Rebels. Those teams don't yet rival the pulling power of Warratahs v Reds yet, but Brumbies matches are well followed. The key to me will be the quality of players (OZ Test/ODI/T20 availability) first, secondly the quality of the matches.
Posted by: Gerard at June 5, 2011 4:46 AM
Franchise-based teams eg Big Bash mean that CA are shooting themselves in the foot as far as I'm concerned. I gave up watching rugby league when the whole Super League fiasco destroyed the game. The AFL's not much better. When it's blatantly obvious that players and clubs have zero loyalty to anyone or anything other than their bank balance (with some isolated exceptions eg Andrew Johns), then why should I? I thought that cricket appeared to have at least some moral standards. Obviously I was wrong.
Posted by: Kannan at July 20, 2011 4:36 AM
Insightful article. What cricket needs in Australia is club allegiance and what better way to get it but by tagging along exisiting ones. Cricket thould have 20/20 or club teams branded Colingwood , Tigers, crows, dogs (and other afl teams) in the southern and western states and NRL teams in NSW and QLD. This would bring in the allegiance of the existing members of these clubs to cricket. Cricket in return could share some of its Summer revenue to these club (some of which are desperately short of cash despite their memberships).
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