Crowds desert ODIs in Australia

VINCE CALIGUIRI/Sydney Morning Herald

A TALE OF TWO ERAS: The sea of empty seats at the MCG last night was a far cry from the bumper crowd of 86,133 when the two nations played at the same venue in 1984.

One-day cricket has again been swamped by Twenty20, with last night's series opener between Australia and the West Indies drawing the smallest MCG crowd for Melbourne's first ODI of the season in almost 30 years.

Two nights after 60,054 people witnessed Australia's pulsating two-run win over Pakistan in the Twenty20 international at the MCG, official estimates put the crowd at 25,000 at 5pm on a glorious Sunday afternoon in Melbourne.

The crowd for Friday night's Twenty20 extravaganza was the biggest for the summer - just eclipsing the 59,206 who went to the cricket on Boxing Day - reinforcing the power and popularity of the newest form of the game.

Cricket Victoria chief executive Tony Dodemaide expressed disappointment in the crowd number but said it did not signal doom and gloom for 50-over cricket.

''No doubt we would have preferred more people to be here, but really we've had 85,000 to 86,000 people come to international cricket over the weekend, which is a pretty good result,'' Dodemaide said.

''There are different dynamics - it's a hot day, it's [televised] live against the gate on free to air so, people have probably decided to stay home. It's still getting very good TV ratings.

''People at the ground are only one measure of who is watching the game. In terms of total eyeballs, there are lot of families at home watching this game.

''We wondered whether live against the gate would bite at some stage and it's held up pretty well.

''I wouldn't draw too many conclusions from one weekend.''

Last night's crowd, which saw Australia amass 8-256 in their 50 overs, was the smallest for the MCG's first ODI of the summer since 1981-82, when fewer than 7000 people watched a neutral game between Pakistan and the West Indies. It was also significantly lower than the 39,750 for last January's Melbourne one-dayer between Australia and South Africa, which benefited from being played during the school holiday period, and the 49,362 for the previous February's Australia-India clash.

A Cricket Australia spokesman said the board was undertaking a comprehensive review of 50-over cricket, which would give a snapshot of its health by the end of the summer, but insisted overall interest measured by Channel Nine ratings and people through the turnstiles remained strong.

Attendance figures alone suggest Twenty20 has overtaken one-day cricket in popularity - 43,125 people flocked to the MCG for a state Twenty20 game between Victoria and Tasmania in January while the biggest ODI crowd for the summer so far is 30,000 in Sydney.

CA limits the number of Twenty20 internationals to three per season, preferring to expand the domestic Big Bash competition which thrived with an influx of overseas stars this season.

''As a state we are very excited about the prospect of building up this Big Bash property of ours and that being very much at the forefront of people's minds coming to watch cricket,'' Dodemaide said.

''I personally don't mind the fact there's less international Twenty20 cricket which gives us more room to breathe and develop something for our local crowds who seem to have embraced it.''

CA next summer will stage a seven-game ODI series against England after the Ashes despite criticism that last year's seven-game series in England was too long.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting voiced his preference for shorter tournaments with more context.

''I have said for quite a while now that those seven-match series are pretty hard to be a part of, but you understand the reasons behind it,'' Ponting said on Saturday.

''One-day cricket brings in a lot of money to the game and you understand that when they come here we play a certain amount and when we go there we play a certain amount.

''But it's just important for one-day cricket's sake that you don't get to a stage where you are just playing meaningless games.

''Sometimes I think the shorter the series is, the more there is resting on each game that you play.

''We'll wait and see how we go, I really enjoy playing cricket against England and all the guys in our rooms would say exactly the same thing.''

Next summer's fixture also features a best-of-three series against Sri Lanka in November, with one game scheduled for the MCG the day after the Melbourne Cup.

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