15 November 2024

Five reasons why our international cricket season was better in the 1980s

| Oliver Jacques
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Old photo of cricket crowd

The crowd on the Hill at the SCG in 1983. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Did anyone notice the international cricket season kicked off this week?

Very few did, it appears, with the Melbourne Cricket Ground only a quarter full as Australia took on Pakistan on a Monday in a match that was scarcely advertised.

The home side then rested its best player for the third and deciding clash to ensure the series fizzled out as meekly as it began.

It’s clear our supposed national sport has lost its allure.

To bring back the fans, we need to revert to an old-style Channel Nine commentary team, revive the sing-a-long summer anthem, restrict ourselves to one national team, cut the meaningless matches and scrap the DRS.

Here are five reasons why cricket was so much better in the 1980s.

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Commentary now sucks

It’s hard to admit, but the era of the pale, stale and male commentators provided far more banter for viewers than we have now.

Bill Lawry said black, as Tony Greig said white, Richie Benaud’s dry wit, and Geoffrey Boycott’s provocations kept us all entertained if the on-field happenings were slow and lopsided.

But now, diversity and inclusion have replaced merit when selecting those in the box, and that’s killing all the fun (save for Kerry O’Keeffe).

Worse still, commentator gigs are now the next career step for the immediately retired player. David Warner may have been a great batsman, but is anyone really interested in hearing his analysis?

“C’mon Aussie” song is gone

A different version of the classic “C’mon Aussie C’mon” song used to be introduced to us at the start of the season. It was the distinctive anthem that pumped us all up for the upcoming summer. It even came with a “goodness gracious me” line when the Indians toured in 1980.

We’re now in an era with 10 times as many people employed in communications and marketing. But for whatever reason, messaging is worse than ever. There seem to be fewer ads promoting cricket, and those aired are generic and boring.

Too much cricket

In the 1980s, there was little cricket for Australian fans to watch between March and November. By the time the season started, we’d have been starved of the sport and hungry for action.

But cricket is now on every month of the year.

In what used to be the off-season, you’ll find a tour to Sri Lanka, a T20 tournament in Dubai and probably even a World Cup (four yearly tournaments that have somehow become annual events). There are so many series that top players are often rested (as they were this week), devaluing the contest. If you can’t put your best squad on the paddock, you’re better off not playing at all. Quantity doesn’t equal quality. Fans and players need the chance to miss the game.

Three sports, three teams

It was much easier to follow the Australian cricket team in the 1980s as there was just one team. We’d have test matches and one-day internationals, but both squads were largely the same, save for a couple of limited over specialists like Simon O’Donnell and Tom Moody.

Nowadays, there are three separate teams for the three forms of the game (including T20s) and you really can’t keep track of who is in which team. It’s much harder to gain familiarity or empathy with your national colours when the names keep changing so rapidly.

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DRS

Who decided a sport that goes on for seven hours in a day needed to be stretched out a little?

Seeing the umpire’s finger go up used to give fans that feeling of pure ecstasy or deathly dread. That’s been taken away now as it seems every second decision is reviewed, leaving us to wait several minutes as every angle and permutation is examined.

We used to watch 90 overs by 6 pm, but we’re now lucky to see 75. That’s less value for money and more time wasted.

I think most cricket fans would like to DRS the DRS system and rule it OUT.

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Times change, people change.

As a traditionalist, I loved going to the test cricket when I lived in South Australia. I used to take a leave day on the Friday, to join my mates, on the grass covered outer of the Adelaide Oval, for the first ball on day 1 of the test. Then we would play on the Saturday (day 2), and be back on day 3 (Sunday) for another dose. One of the additional joys, was having the tranny (back then it was a colloquialism for a transistor radio) giving us the very entertaining match commentary from the ABC team. Oh yes, great days.

But like everything, we move on, and the modern fan is not interested in a sporting event that potentially lasts 5 days – and even then can deliver a ‘no result’ outcome … despite the fact that some of the most exciting tests I’ve witnessed have ended in a draw.

So, enter the shorter form, especially the T20 format, which delivers everything the modern day fan desires:
– it runs for about the same time as a footy (AFL) match;
– it’s a thrill a minute experience (especially the big hitting and astounding fielding);
– fans are (generally) guaranteed a result – even if it can be a tad confusing as to how it came about; and
– there’s the American-NBL-style hype from the ground announcer, accompanied by blaring music.

Who could possibly want to go back to those boring days of the 80s?
A. Me, in a heart beat!

How many different ways can sixteen people stand in a paddock belting, fielding & ajedicating a ball with a stick FGS, as exciting as watching a plank warp in the sun.

Cricket in the 80s’ was great. Cricket is cannibalising itself now, too much cricket played. T20 has killed it. It used to be that playing for your country was the ultimate and was how you got paid the most money, now cricketers have become like golfers and tennis players with all the T20 competitions around the world. They can earn more money playing in those competitions than playing for their country.

It doesn’t help when even Cricket Australia doesn’t care about one-day cricket. It demonstrated this by resting all those players in the third one-day international against Pakistan. As well as playing the first one-day international on a Monday when they could have played on the weekend. And throw in no advertising about the series. It’s like Cricket Australia doesn’t want any crowds at the games. Why would you expect the Australian public to care when even Cricket Australia doesn’t care about the series?

The balancer of games, and the home calendar, is all wrong.
But the BBL needs to be in the school holidays, which consigns everything else to having to fit around anti-cricket.
Mens white ball internationals being hidden behind a paywall doesn’t help. And its a very different media landscape, highly splintered, with the AFL and NRL ruling what remains of mainstream sports media for 12 months of the year.

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