Test cricket a dismal future?
Cricket's moved on from the Aussie Indian test series but bigger questions remain for test cricket - so before we forget the series and move onto the Indian, English one-dayers, and Pakistan whipping the West indies -
What's the future of test cricket?
I always had the impression that the religious zeal fundamental to sub continent cricket would always see stadiums filled to the gunnels with spectators.
The numbers are overwhelming. The population in Nagpur, the location of the last India Australia test, is 2.4 million and is the 13th largest urban conglomeration in India. Although slums exist, reflecting the reality that India still has poverty, there is still a reasonable pool of people to fill a stadium. Maybe Indian readers could clarify - but would I be safe to assume that 90+ % of Indians are at least actively interested in cricket, and the majority are fanatics - with cricket pervading all aspects of their lives?
But these noble and rather romantic notions must be cast aside, because my endearing memory of the last test will be the empty grandstands and the weird echo resonating from the television audio. Was this ‘sound effect' a result of the sound technicians turning their sound microphones up too loud to capture what noise there was from the sprinkling of spectators? It sounded like it to me.
Everyone has predicted the doom of test cricket ever since the one day game was invented, whereas I believe that tests play an important part in the elite cricket spectacle. But the latest Aussie India test series sends out dire warnings. Again, everything was stacked in favour of drawing record crowds:
- India winning against the big bad-boy Australia, not only the last test but the series
- Tendulkar scoring a test ton, and accumulating more runs than the population of Nagpur
- Ganguly's last test
But the crowds still stayed away in droves. The reasons given have been that the glucose high of Twenty20 makes test cricket a yawning event (at best). Even a half-hour highlights package of test cricket can fail to entertain as much as a Twenty20 game. So spectators are hooked, like sad addicts who just can't go back to the starch and slow release carbohydrate energy of a test match.
I've speculated also that the quality of television coverage means the attraction of the plasma screen etc. makes the trek to a live test match too much hassle But that doesn't stack up as tests have had great patronage in countries like Australia and England. And cricket - as the cliché goes - is a religion in India.
So what's up and what can we do about it?
Obviously, India needs to address the problem and my first suggestion is to open the gates - so to speak. Drop the price of test match entry, confident that cricket's coffers will be more than compensated by subsidy from Twenty20. We also need to remember that there are still many poor Indians.
They may love the game but can't afford to watch it. There is a growing middle class in India, but they obviously don't appear that interested in test cricket.
Some would argue that we should spruce up test cricket, but I disagree. Leave that to ODI's and Twenty20. As I've said, tests are unique, and should be sacrosanct. The fabulous culture and history of cricket is test cricket.
Maybe the sugar rush of Twenty20 will die away (often the case with cheaper, sweetened thrills), and the quality and nuance of the refined form of the game will flourish. Once again we'll have packed stands at tests in India, as cheap tickets bring in the masses to watch their heroes.
Another interesting comment on the tests in India is here.
| Posted by Perky @ cricketmystery.com on Mon 17 Nov |  7 comments |
But still obviously we have a huge population who is totally into cricket and the reasons why I feel the cricket stadiums are almost empty during tests are as follows:
1) Our cricket board - BCCI - is the most corrupt and greedy organization in entire India. It is an embarrasment to all Indians and they want to organize as many 20-20 or ODI matches as possible. They don't care about tests anymore because they make more money on the ODI etc front.
2) The stadiums in India, especially in the smaller cities are quite bad - bad seats, bad facilities etc and hence many people are turned off going to tests and sitting there for the whole day.
3) There is no shade in the stadiums for spectators. In summer (and it is summer 80% of the times out here), it is absolutely pathetic sitting under the hot sun, does not matter who is playing.
4) Greedy BCCI sell tests tickets for the entire match. Not as per day basis. Many Indians feel it is a waste of money buying tickets for the entire game. If they sold single day tickets, I myself would have gone and watched a few matches.
5) Last point - this might not be a valid reason - but India has seen tremendous growth in the last decade. From being a really poor country, we dream of being a super power in 30-40 years. A lot of Indians have now started working really hard, earned a lot of money and they prefer spending it in a different way. Before cricket was the only thing. Now with DTH etc many people prefer watching matches via their new DISH connections where they can pause live matches and watch with friends from the comforts of their new home and new huge LCD tvs. Just in general I think the way people have started to earn, they have realized there are many many other things to do besides watching cricket.
Overall I completely blame BCCI for empty seats during tests. If they spent about 5% as much they spend on promoting 20-20, the tests would have packed stadiums. I hate BCCI. They are such a misrepresentation for the new generation Indians.
Posted by rayden on 2008-11-19 04:35:00
Posted by Moses on 2008-11-20 14:06:24
2) I was under the impression that it was the cheap seats that had people in them, and the pricier sections that were sparsely populated
3) This is why we have beer. Hats can also provide 'mobile shade' to the wearer.
4) If the BCCI is greedy then surely they'd sell individual days in addition to the 5 day ticket. This way they would have received some of your rupee's in addition to the 150 other spectators
5) There is no more to life than watching cricket. Take it from someome who's had a big TV for many years.
So it's all the BCCI's fault? Through their greed they sell only 5 day tickets, yet in spite of their greed they don't promote the matches which would have packed stadiums, but for the BCCI's greed.
Could it be that Indians just don't like Test Cricket?
Posted by Moses on 2008-11-20 14:14:25
Test cricket is definitely not as popular as ODIs and 20-20 in India. I agree with you on that.
But the reason I blame BCCI for test cricket's slump in India is they are just not interested in promoting it. They asked the England board if they could postpone the first test match to be played between India and England by one day to accomodate the Champions League. They didnt ask the Champions League guys to adjust by one day. Its the tests they wanted to adjust.
With Australia we had 4 matches - well thats because India v Australia is now the best test series out there and the TV rights sell for huge amounts of money. The Aus vs Ind test series had amazing TRPs. Probably the best for any test series till now in Indian television.
As for tickets, you would think it would be common sense to sell day tickets to make more money, but somehow thats past BCCI. Maybe they should let Modi handle tests promotion. I dont like him, but he is really good at marketing.
Maybe I should not blame BCCI completely but they have to take a fair share of the blame. Why organize 7 ODIs and just 2 tests with England? We always have 2 test series with most countries. Only with Australia we have 4 and with South Africa we have max 3. They would cut down on those as well if they could.
Also like the article said - we can subsidise test cricket ticket prices etc as BCCI makes more than enough money via the other formats. Even if they promoted tests and went in a loss that would be ok. But they just dont do that.
Maybe I am just a test cricket fan who is really upset with BCCI's attitude and hence blaming them for everything. But lets say your argument that Indians just dont like test cricket is true, then with a population of 1 billion +, even if 5% of the population likes tests, thats 50 million people !! But BCCI wants to target the entire population and wants to promote only ODIs and 20-20 where they can make the most money.
Posted by rayden on 2008-11-20 21:48:13
Posted by INDIARULES on 2008-11-22 03:10:53
Hope they dont cry now against the Kiwis
Posted by INDIARULES on 2008-11-22 23:11:23
Few things first ... Indians have been cricket crazy for ages on.
Test,ODI,T20 India has keep spectators for most of them,considering the coverage in print and eletronic media.
My take on why there are sparse crowd.
Cricketing facilities are not all that great wrt to spectators.
Tickets are expensive,so is the food stuff and cola.I mean spending 1000 rupees per day for 5 days.
Weather aint conducive either.
I dont have no qualms that Indians are cricketing crazy and TV coverage sitting on a lounge is better than actually going out to watch it on the grounds.
Posted by tarunjohri on 2008-11-26 05:54:54
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