TOPIC:

Bazza wrote:

Leather Stops wrote: Great to see 121,000 at Adelaide for 3 days. Pity the WACA crowd stayed home. Perhaps they should drop the Perth Test as NO ONE goes..

Perth was dropped off the test scene recently was it not?

Fact is the WACA only pulls a crowd during the Ashes, no one goes otherwise bar a few old fart WACA members, the other NZ test matches were poorly attended as well, the Adelaide Oval game was a freak attendace due to experimentation, the bottom line is this is not just a local problem but an international one, test match attendances are in free fall, in the West Indies its pretty much dead, India struggles, The Ashes pull a crowd here and the UK, but its the traditional novelty value that keeps that going. Packer started the decline in test Cricket.

Fair call too Bazza. Apart from the saffers and poms, there is no "feeling" or interest for test cricket. People want fast, bells and whistles all over in 4 hrs, then forget it and wait for the next "bread and circuses" EVENT, not sport,.... event!! The days of real sport are either dead or dying, from a traditionists point of view.

The Melbourne & Sydney Tests are well attended every year as is the Adelaide Test for that matter. How many other sports would pull a crowd during the day on a Monday, Tuesday etc when the vast majority are either at work or school? The massive TV ratings would also suggest Test cricket is far from dead!

Bazza wrote:

Leather Stops wrote: Great to see 121,000 at Adelaide for 3 days. Pity the WACA crowd stayed home. Perhaps they should drop the Perth Test as NO ONE goes..

Perth was dropped off the test scene recently was it not?

Fact is the WACA only pulls a crowd during the Ashes, no one goes otherwise bar a few old fart WACA members, the other NZ test matches were poorly attended as well, the Adelaide Oval game was a freak attendace due to experimentation, the bottom line is this is not just a local problem but an international one, test match attendances are in free fall, in the West Indies its pretty much dead, India struggles, The Ashes pull a crowd here and the UK, but its the traditional novelty value that keeps that going. Packer started the decline in test Cricket.

Haha Bazza mate that is a ridiculous comment about Packer!! If it wasn't for Packer the game would be dead and buried well and truly by now..fact is he saved the game and pink ball D/N tests will save test cricket.

Swandog wrote:

Bazza wrote:

Leather Stops wrote: Great to see 121,000 at Adelaide for 3 days. Pity the WACA crowd stayed home. Perhaps they should drop the Perth Test as NO ONE goes..

Perth was dropped off the test scene recently was it not?

Fact is the WACA only pulls a crowd during the Ashes, no one goes otherwise bar a few old fart WACA members, the other NZ test matches were poorly attended as well, the Adelaide Oval game was a freak attendace due to experimentation, the bottom line is this is not just a local problem but an international one, test match attendances are in free fall, in the West Indies its pretty much dead, India struggles, The Ashes pull a crowd here and the UK, but its the traditional novelty value that keeps that going. Packer started the decline in test Cricket.

Haha Bazza mate that is a ridiculous comment about Packer!! If it wasn't for Packer the game would be dead and buried well and truly by now..fact is he saved the game and pink ball D/N tests will save test cricket.

Not ridiculous at all all, the fact is Packer intrduced an alternative version of Cricket, one dayers, ( people are now bored with that ) and that got shortened to 20 / 20 . crowds got a taste of a shorter and quicker game, not the slower test match version..the end result is a generational change in the style of game people like to view. Saved the game not sure about that , but he certainly changed what people like to watch and made it all about the money, I guess if you like what he did for cricket then you must love what the AFL has done for footy.

I remember going to Test Games and Sheffield Shield games at the WACA pre packer and I can tell you the attendances and atmosphere were far better than most bar the ashes today.

UNKA2 wrote:

Bazza wrote:

Leather Stops wrote: Great to see 121,000 at Adelaide for 3 days. Pity the WACA crowd stayed home. Perhaps they should drop the Perth Test as NO ONE goes..

Perth was dropped off the test scene recently was it not?

Fact is the WACA only pulls a crowd during the Ashes, no one goes otherwise bar a few old fart WACA members, the other NZ test matches were poorly attended as well, the Adelaide Oval game was a freak attendace due to experimentation, the bottom line is this is not just a local problem but an international one, test match attendances are in free fall, in the West Indies its pretty much dead, India struggles, The Ashes pull a crowd here and the UK, but its the traditional novelty value that keeps that going. Packer started the decline in test Cricket.

Fair call too Bazza. Apart from the saffers and poms, there is no "feeling" or interest for test cricket. People want fast, bells and whistles all over in 4 hrs, then forget it and wait for the next "bread and circuses" EVENT, not sport,.... event!! The days of real sport are either dead or dying, from a traditionists point of view.

Spot on, its all about the next gimic, one dayers, 20/20, pink balls, et al. then theres the big money comps in India which have sucked a lot of life out of the game.

I remember when the annual international test was on in Perth in the 70's the city was really abuz with exitement, England and West Indies were huge , India and Pakistan got big crowds also then there was NZ and Hadlee and co, which was also pretty big at the time. NZ came to town and the WACA was a ghost town despite it being a tiny venue now.

Bazza wrote:

Swandog wrote:

Bazza wrote:

Leather Stops wrote: Great to see 121,000 at Adelaide for 3 days. Pity the WACA crowd stayed home. Perhaps they should drop the Perth Test as NO ONE goes..

Perth was dropped off the test scene recently was it not?

Fact is the WACA only pulls a crowd during the Ashes, no one goes otherwise bar a few old fart WACA members, the other NZ test matches were poorly attended as well, the Adelaide Oval game was a freak attendace due to experimentation, the bottom line is this is not just a local problem but an international one, test match attendances are in free fall, in the West Indies its pretty much dead, India struggles, The Ashes pull a crowd here and the UK, but its the traditional novelty value that keeps that going. Packer started the decline in test Cricket.

Haha Bazza mate that is a ridiculous comment about Packer!! If it wasn't for Packer the game would be dead and buried well and truly by now..fact is he saved the game and pink ball D/N tests will save test cricket.

Not ridiculous at all all, the fact is Packer intrduced an alternative version of Cricket, one dayers, ( people are now bored with that ) and that got shortened to 20 / 20 . crowds got a taste of a shorter and quicker game, not the slower test match version..the end result is a generational change in the style of game people like to view. Saved the game not sure about that , but he certainly changed what people like to watch and made it all about the money, I guess if you like what he did for cricket then you must love what the AFL has done for footy.

I remember going to Test Games and Sheffield Shield games at the WACA pre packer and I can tell you the attendances and atmosphere were far better than most bar the ashes today.

Packer didn't introduce one day cricket to the market it was played long before 1977 when he became involved in fact there was a one day cricket World Cup in 1975!

Beasley Hutton wrote:

Bazza wrote:

Swandog wrote:

Bazza wrote:

Leather Stops wrote: Great to see 121,000 at Adelaide for 3 days. Pity the WACA crowd stayed home. Perhaps they should drop the Perth Test as NO ONE goes..

Perth was dropped off the test scene recently was it not?

Fact is the WACA only pulls a crowd during the Ashes, no one goes otherwise bar a few old fart WACA members, the other NZ test matches were poorly attended as well, the Adelaide Oval game was a freak attendace due to experimentation, the bottom line is this is not just a local problem but an international one, test match attendances are in free fall, in the West Indies its pretty much dead, India struggles, The Ashes pull a crowd here and the UK, but its the traditional novelty value that keeps that going. Packer started the decline in test Cricket.

Haha Bazza mate that is a ridiculous comment about Packer!! If it wasn't for Packer the game would be dead and buried well and truly by now..fact is he saved the game and pink ball D/N tests will save test cricket.

Not ridiculous at all all, the fact is Packer intrduced an alternative version of Cricket, one dayers, ( people are now bored with that ) and that got shortened to 20 / 20 . crowds got a taste of a shorter and quicker game, not the slower test match version..the end result is a generational change in the style of game people like to view. Saved the game not sure about that , but he certainly changed what people like to watch and made it all about the money, I guess if you like what he did for cricket then you must love what the AFL has done for footy.

I remember going to Test Games and Sheffield Shield games at the WACA pre packer and I can tell you the attendances and atmosphere were far better than most bar the ashes today.

Packer didn't introduce one day cricket to the market it was played long before 1977 when he became involved in fact there was a one day cricket World Cup in 1975!

Our mate might need a glass of milk to wash down his humble pie

As people have suggested earlier, Packer invented nothing and he has saved nothing, all he did was make money from the national sport. He also encouraged people to watch it on television rather than go along.

Anglo-Australian test crowds have actually gone up over the last decade not down. Tests against other nations have always been rather poorly attended, aside from the WI on certain days -- weekends -- in the 1960s. In the 1980s, the WI never packed out one test match. The one exception to the rule has been 'Boxing Day'.

It will be interesting to see what happens in 2016 against the WI.

Swandog wrote:

Beasley Hutton wrote:

Bazza wrote:

Swandog wrote:

Bazza wrote:

Leather Stops wrote: Great to see 121,000 at Adelaide for 3 days. Pity the WACA crowd stayed home. Perhaps they should drop the Perth Test as NO ONE goes..

Perth was dropped off the test scene recently was it not?

Fact is the WACA only pulls a crowd during the Ashes, no one goes otherwise bar a few old fart WACA members, the other NZ test matches were poorly attended as well, the Adelaide Oval game was a freak attendace due to experimentation, the bottom line is this is not just a local problem but an international one, test match attendances are in free fall, in the West Indies its pretty much dead, India struggles, The Ashes pull a crowd here and the UK, but its the traditional novelty value that keeps that going. Packer started the decline in test Cricket.

Haha Bazza mate that is a ridiculous comment about Packer!! If it wasn't for Packer the game would be dead and buried well and truly by now..fact is he saved the game and pink ball D/N tests will save test cricket.

Not ridiculous at all all, the fact is Packer intrduced an alternative version of Cricket, one dayers, ( people are now bored with that ) and that got shortened to 20 / 20 . crowds got a taste of a shorter and quicker game, not the slower test match version..the end result is a generational change in the style of game people like to view. Saved the game not sure about that , but he certainly changed what people like to watch and made it all about the money, I guess if you like what he did for cricket then you must love what the AFL has done for footy.

I remember going to Test Games and Sheffield Shield games at the WACA pre packer and I can tell you the attendances and atmosphere were far better than most bar the ashes today.

Packer didn't introduce one day cricket to the market it was played long before 1977 when he became involved in fact there was a one day cricket World Cup in 1975!

Our mate might need a glass of milk to wash down his humble pie