Cricket needs you

[spurs]

I'd like to know people's thoughts on how we improve the great game of cricket. Footy and cricket are my passion, and i know footy is in amazing shape. Cricket needs our help and it worries me that people like Snake Baker says "I played the sport on and off for 30 years, and it's definitely no longer for me. They killed it". Well here is everyone's chance to put forward what they would like to see at the cricket and get crowds back.

 

[KiwiRoo]

More pink ball tests. Heaps better to watch visually and a better time slot for the crowds.

Also, move more cricket out of the concrete stadiums. Get some space around the grounds so the kids can play their games and the Adults can watch from the shade of a tree.

 

[Quivorir]

Couldn't care less about the game. Isn't there a cricket board?

 

[toepoker]

Sack Kookaburra from their ball contract or at least get them to make the seam more pronounced. The Ashes were great with a Dukes ball because something was happening all the time.
And let's play a bit less cricket. I know BBL is the one day cricket of my childhood but do we have to have it every single flipping day for the next 6 weeks?

 

[Tas]

Played it a fair bit when I was younger, what is going against it is that it is a fairly slow paced/boring sport and it takes up a lot of time, even a 20/20 game (which is an abomination) goes for what 3 hours? I just don't think it is well suited for a modern audience and I don't think it was designed to be a spectator sport. When I watch cricket, as rare as it is nowadays, it is test cricket on tv in the background whilst I am doing something else.

I think it will continue to morph into a bastardised type of indoor cricket game made for television rather than live attendance in the future, but that will probably be long after I am dead, thankfully.

 

[SMaturin]

Pitches to be more bowler friendly on the first days of tests.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

I still play at suburban level for hits and giggles, but there is a sheer dearth of older kids and younger adults coming through. Female cricket is getting better, but junior numbers are shocking for my area.

When I played juniors 15 years ago, my club had 10 junior teams, now we have none.

State level isn’t great for scheduling and spreading out the four day games across the year. Elite pathways aren’t too bad in nsw, but we get the lion share of elite development funding. 20-20 saturation had contributed to the scheduling problems. Crap and flat pitches don’t help.

This all affects the international side of things.

 

[Horizons_00]

Couldn't care less about the game. Isn't there a cricket board?

I’m the same. So boring

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

Couldn't care less about the game. Isn't there a cricket board?

Yea, but it’s full of cricket nerds.

 

[big_e]

Maybe cricket is fine and people like Snake are the problem?

 

[Mav]

I still play at suburban level for hits and giggles, but there is a sheer dearth of older kids and younger adults coming through. Female cricket is getting better, but junior numbers are shocking for my area.

When I played juniors 15 years ago, my club had 10 junior teams, now we have none.

State level isn’t great for scheduling and spreading out the four day games across the year. Elite pathways aren’t too bad in nsw, but we get the lion share of elite development funding. 20-20 saturation had contributed to the scheduling problems. Crap and flat pitches don’t help.

This all affects the international side of things.

We’ve got more than 15 junior teams. We’ve got 4 u16 teams for the first time in years.

All good here in SA.

 

[SpiderBurton22]

We’ve got more than 15 junior teams. We’ve got 4 u16 teams for the first time in years.

All good here in SA.

All good in the country too. Girls junior cricket is booming.

 

[EDFL follower]

All good in the country too. Girls junior cricket is booming.

Im in the country and Our junior numbers are down 40 percent in the last 10 years across our league. Are your juniors all played Saturday mornings or during the week?

 

[spurs]

Sack Kookaburra from their ball contract or at least get them to make the seam more pronounced. The Ashes were great with a Dukes ball because something was happening all the time.
And let's play a bit less cricket. I know BBL is the one day cricket of my childhood but do we have to have it every single flipping day for the next 6 weeks?

All good points.So duke ball and less games. What about the ODI's, I thought we could have two innings of 20? Thoughts?

 

[spurs]

Played it a fair bit when I was younger, what is going against it is that it is a fairly slow paced/boring sport and it takes up a lot of time, even a 20/20 game (which is an abomination) goes for what 3 hours? I just don't think it is well suited for a modern audience and I don't think it was designed to be a spectator sport. When I watch cricket, as rare as it is nowadays, it is test cricket on tv in the background whilst I am doing something else.

I think it will continue to morph into a bastardised type of indoor cricket game made for television rather than live attendance in the future, but that will probably be long after I am dead, thankfully.

Footy goes for 2.5 hours and people go to games. I don't think 3 hours is too long. Good to hear you like test cricket, even if it is in the background.Personally, I love the strategic side of test cricket.

 

[Dan]

Dig up Bradman and clone him.

 

[spurs]

I still play at suburban level for hits and giggles, but there is a sheer dearth of older kids and younger adults coming through. Female cricket is getting better, but junior numbers are shocking for my area.

When I played juniors 15 years ago, my club had 10 junior teams, now we have none.

State level isn’t great for scheduling and spreading out the four day games across the year. Elite pathways aren’t too bad in nsw, but we get the lion share of elite development funding. 20-20 saturation had contributed to the scheduling problems. Crap and flat pitches don’t help.

This all affects the international side of things.

I think we have finally bonded K4E.
Obviously you love cricket like me. What do we do to help juniors,seniors local cricket? How do we get more people to International games?

 

[spurs]

We’ve got more than 15 junior teams. We’ve got 4 u16 teams for the first time in years.

All good here in SA.

What is it about SA and cricket? You have more people attending cricket than anyone per capita?

 

[toepoker]

All good points.So duke ball and less games. What about the ODI's, I thought we could have two innings of 20? Thoughts?

ODIs are a bit of an outlier in Australia in that they've dramatically dropped off in popularity to what they were in the 80s/90s while still being huge on the subcontinent (where the $ are). So we have to retain some sort of commitment to them (albeit limited this summer in that the only home ones are in March, just as footy's about to start). Maybe take them off Broadway a bit, play more in the likes of Canberra or some larger regional centres? BBL seems to be turning around junior numbers to a degree so ODIs are never going to dominate January again but there must be some way to use them productively.

 

[Mav]

What is it about SA and cricket? You have more people attending cricket than anyone per capita?

The cricket is like the Races for us. Its as much of a social get together as it is watching the cricket.

 

[spurs]

ODIs are a bit of an outlier in Australia in that they've dramatically dropped off in popularity to what they were in the 80s/90s while still being huge on the subcontinent (where the $ are). So we have to retain some sort of commitment to them (albeit limited this summer in that the only home ones are in March, just as footy's about to start). Maybe take them off Broadway a bit, play more in the likes of Canberra or some larger regional centres? BBL seems to be turning around junior numbers to a degree so ODIs are never going to dominate January again but there must be some way to use them productively.

Nice one. Do you like my idea of 2 innings of 20?

 

[toepoker]

Nice one. Do you like my idea of 2 innings of 20?

Do you mean 2 innings of 20 or one innings of 40 where each side's innings is broken in half? (bat 20, bowl 20, bat 20, bowl 20)? We used to play that in our local cricket & it was quite good. I feel like there's relatively distinct markets for ODIs & T20 these days so trying to mix the two might not work though

 

[spurs]

Do you mean 2 innings of 20 or one innings of 40 where each side's innings is broken in half? (bat 20, bowl 20, bat 20, bowl 20)? We used to play that in our local cricket & it was quite good. I feel like there's relatively distinct markets for ODIs & T20 these days so trying to mix the two might not work though

2 innings of 20

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

I think we have finally bonded K4E.
Obviously you love cricket like me. What do we do to help juniors,seniors local cricket? How do we get more people to International games?

The million dollar question.

Day-Night tests (1 of them a series is pretty good), more even pitches for batters/bowlers, re-organise the scheduling of the Shieffled Shield and one-day tournaments (who cares about low crowds, it's always had them in the modern era), and get more of our better kids to play in overseas first class competitions.

As for the junior numbers, I'm not sure how to fix that. It's part funding, it's part localised (i.e. SA has pretty good participation, while my area of Newcastle is poor) and is affected by the younger infatuation with 20-20 cricket.

 

[toepoker]

2 innings of 20

might take too long for the short attention span generation