Is there such a thing as too much cricket?
Cricket fans in Australia were given a reprieve by Fox Sports, having swept in at the last minute to secure rights to England’s home series against India. Fox Sports had initially turned down the ECB’s rights as they had lost Ashes content exclusively to the Nine Network, and their interest in cricket waned as they had also lost the highly rated Big Bash League to the Ten Network.
Fox Sports’ lack of interest in securing cricket rights initially meant that there would be a blackout on cricket coverage in Australia till essentially the start of the jam-packed summer schedule. This may not have been a bad thing. While many keen cricket fans and observers may disagree, with Fox Sports buckling to public pressure and picking up the ECB rights, and probably will pick up rights for Australia’s away tours this year, the 2014/15 home and away seasons may provide an oversaturation of cricket to a reasonably small market down under.
The 2014/15 season in Australia is the largest seen in the country’s cricketing history. The men’s team will play host to South Africa for a three game ODI series, as well as a three game T20 series, before moving on to a four Test Match series against India, ahead of a tri-series involving India and England, then onto the first World Cup in the region since 1991/92.
In the middle of all this, there are of course Cricket Australia’s domestic competitions in the Sheffield Shield, One Day Cup and Big Bash League. The Big Bash League, which has become Cricket Australia’s marquee domestic tournament, will feature a compressed 35 games in 42 days next season. With the National team playing across all three formats leading into the World Cup, there are already some high profile withdrawals from the fourth season of the Big Bash League, with Australian Captain Michael Clarke, and attacking batsman David Warner already pulling out, as their national duties will already be higher than usual.
With such an intensive schedule, for both the players and spectators alike, there is a risk of burnout, and therefore sparse crowds throughout the summer. Attendances for the World Cup are sure to be strong, as it is the first event of its kind for a generation in this side of the world. It may however seem that the ODIs preceding the World Cup, as well as the Big Bash League may see a dip in attendance numbers.
There has already been a trend of ODI crowds being down in Australia since the introduction of the T20Is and BBL to the summer schedule, and if the 2011 season in India is anything to go by, it sure to continue in Australia in 2014/15. 2011 saw India co-host the ICC World Cup, which was immediately followed by the IPL, which saw ODI crowds throughout the year dip as the excessive amount of cricket on offer to the public took its toll on crowd attendances, with half empty stadiums welcoming the India v England ODI series – something not heard of in the history of modern Indian cricket.
While organisers in Australia and New Zealand have done well to make sure the World Cup is an affordable event, with most adult tickets being on offer for AUD20, fans will draw a line for which games they will attend and which they will watch on television during the main part of the summer in terms of Tests, ODIs, T20Is and the Big Bash League – with crowds to the ODD and Sheffield Shield almost negligible. Though this oversaturation of cricket down under is only a once in a generation occurrence, the question still must be answered whether less is more when it comes to a quality cricket product served up by administrators.