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Cricket dying?

Floyd

Floyd

Striker
Mid 80s I’m in the Merchant Navy. I remember going ashore one night in Bangladesh and seeing groups of people gathered around radios listening to a test match (England v India I’m guessing).

Yesterday in the West Indies I go to a ‘sports bar’ to watch the final stages of what had turned out to be a pretty exciting end to a pretty turgid test. All 6 screens in the bar were showing Man U v Spuds game...
 

Floyd said:
Mid 80s I’m in the Merchant Navy. I remember going ashore one night in Bangladesh and seeing groups of people gathered around radios listening to a test match (England v India I’m guessing).

Yesterday in the West Indies I go to a ‘sports bar’ to watch the final stages of what had turned out to be a pretty exciting end to a pretty turgid test. All 6 screens in the bar were showing Man U v Spuds game...
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I think it’s not as popular as it was well the long format you see more crowds (in majority) of the shorter game.

Also over in the windies they have mlb nba and even to some extent baseball. Which is taking potential super stars away and dragging fans away from
The game.
 
Tests are definitely less popular. People have less patience these days and with the huge availability of watching the shorter format less people will bother watching the longer format
 
In this country (since 2006) and the Caribbean yes.

In South Asia it seems to be growing if anything.

I remember being in South Africa in 2010 and being shocked when Gary Megson (I think) being sacked by Bolton made the back page of the local papers. Mad how big football is…
 
NorthCountryBoy said:
In this country (since 2006) and the Caribbean yes.

In South Asia it seems to be growing if anything.

I remember being in South Africa in 2010 and being shocked when Gary Megson (I think) being sacked by Bolton made the back page of the local papers. Mad how big football is…
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That story only made the back pages because despite being born in Manchester Gary Megson is one of South Africa's biggest sporting icons.

He has a street in the city of Welkom named after him
 
NorthCountryBoy said:
😂

Don’t know where to start with this.
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It was back in the 95 when he was the assistant manager of Norwich City. He took a trip to South Africa to spend time with the national rugby team ahead of the World Cup that year. Apparently his presence in the camp and his natural born leadership qualities brought the camp together and united them which became the catalyst to South Africa winning the World Cup and the major role it played in uniting the country!

For this Gary Megson will always be highly regarded in South Africa.
 
You walk around Sri Lanka now and still every few streets there's a group of children playing on some of the most horrendous surfaces ever.
 
The problem been is that football is too big and has been for years!

Even in the summer the back pages are full of what transfer rumours they are what managers are possibly getting sacked etc etc.

Even youth leagues now have summer football leagues which I find ridiculous.

As kid I always thought there was that clear definition of England’s two main sports in this country football in the winter cricket in the summer.

Now it’s football, football and more football.
 
Voice of fair play said:
The problem been is that football is too big and has been for years!

Even in the summer the back pages are full of what transfer rumours they are what managers are possibly getting sacked etc etc.

Even youth leagues now have summer football leagues which I find ridiculous.

As kid I always thought there was that clear definition of England’s two main sports in this country football in the winter cricket in the summer.

Now it’s football, football and more football.
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Pretty much this. Whenever something other than Football was scheduled at school there was always a a number who would dig their heels in until we played Football.
 
The lack of coverage on non subscription TV hasn't helped it either.

I appreciate the money it brings, but it's cutting a large amount of people off from watching.

It wouldn't be so bad if some of the one day games where shown on freeview, Lord knows there are plenty of channels that could show it.
 
I don't think teams playing out for draws helps. The first test in Pakistan last week was a joke, as was the way Joe Root approached the last innings against NZ last year. That run chase was easily achievable but from ball one they never tried once, shameful. Fans want to see a result.

I don't know how the scoring is worked out for the test Championship, but, a draw shouldn't be classed much higher than a defeat.
 
JL1985 said:
I don't think teams playing out for draws helps. The first test in Pakistan last week was a joke, as was the way Joe Root approached the last innings against NZ last year. That run chase was easily achievable but from ball one they never tried once, shameful. Fans want to see a result.

I don't know how the scoring is worked out for the test Championship, but, a draw shouldn't be classed much higher than a defeat.
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Totally agree mate, problem is there is a lot of pressure at the top level, and captains averse to taking a risk to win a game, the NZ game you mention classic example.

There is no way preparing wickets like the Pakistan game last week is good for cricket.
 
chunksafc said:
The lack of coverage on non subscription TV hasn't helped it either.

I appreciate the money it brings, but it's cutting a large amount of people off from watching.

It wouldn't be so bad if some of the one day games where shown on freeview, Lord knows there are plenty of channels that could show it.
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Said this for a while. The ashes and the BBL are on free to air here in Australia and it does wonders for the general interest in cricket. I guess the idea behind the hundred was to do this but it just complicated things further imo.
 
Not in UK

More people watch live cricket in England now than any other period in history

Test matches sell out too

Test cricket is absolutely unreal in England and for about 10 years we lost like 1 series, almost think people just took it for granted

It helps that we have fans from different countries here who add to the atmosphere
 
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I am Boss said:
Lack of FTA cricket on tele and poor scheduling of domestic fixtures don't help. The first cricket kids will see nowadays is The Hundred as it's the only one that's free. Growing up England were always on the tele so the interest came naturally
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I've said this before.

Back in the day, everyone would be talking about the ashes because it was on the telly. These days, I barely notice the ashes are even on. 90% of that is because they moved it to sky.
 
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