One-day cricket still alive in Australia despite rise of Big Bash League

THE death of one-day cricket has been greatly exaggerated. Bumper TV ratings for Australia's opening ODI prove it, writes Malcolm Conn.

THE death of one-day cricket has been greatly exaggerated.

This is just as well because Australia are going to have an awful lot of it next summer, culminating in the World Cup hosted here and in New Zealand.

One-day crowds are well down on the peaks of past decades but Test crowds are up significantly and the Big Bash is now the Even Bigger Bash thanks to Channel 10 turning it into a free-to-air juggernaut this summer.

However, if one-day cricket has become the ugly duckling of Australian sport, Channel 9 hasn't noticed.

Its gang-buster ratings from the Ashes were topped by last Sunday's opening one-dayer between Australia and England in Melbourne, with an average of 2.4 million and peak above three million.

World Cup organisers now have the formidable task of converting that ongoing interest to bums on seats in a tournament which is among one of the biggest sporting events in the world, thanks to the obsession of 1.5 billion fans from the subcontinent.

One-day crowds in Australia were dropping off because of the formalised nature of the game and some heavy-handed work by administrators and police to clean up the drunken and unsavoury nature of limited-overs crowds during the '80s and '90s.

They tumbled when Twenty20 cricket arrived and have not recovered, the best example being the cavernous MCG.

On February 1, 2008, the first Twenty20 international was played in Melbourne between Australia and India and attracted 84,041.

One-day crowds have been disappearing in the rearview mirror since, with 38,000 watching last Sunday night's match. And that was the best one-day crowd at the MCG for five years. Compare that with the Melbourne Test, which had a world record 91,112 on Boxing Day and a four-day aggregate of 270,000.

Even the Big Bash crowds are consistently outnumbering one-day internationals around the country.

A record of almost 43,000 fans were at Etihad Stadium to watch the Melbourne derby between the Renegades and the Stars this month.

There have also been record Big Bash crowds at Perth's WACA, which consistently sells out. The Scorchers attracted 18,718 against the Thunder.

And the Brisbane Heat dragged 32,696 into the Gabba for their match against the Melbourne Stars.

The Adelaide Strikers have also sold out the redeveloped Adelaide Oval twice in six days. In all, almost 430,000 fans have watched the Big Bash this season, averaging more than 20,000 a match, which is significantly better than the under 17,000 a game last season.

A new overall attendance record is on the cards.

But for all the focus on Twenty20 cricket - whether it be the Big Bash, IPL, or other competitions around the world, the one-day game still remains the game's central driver and the World Cup by far its biggest tournament, setting television records in India.

The importance of one-day cricket as a revenue provider is highlighted by the fact that Australia's three-Test series against Pakistan in the UAE this October is about to become a two-Test series with three one-day matches and a T20 international.