These are confusing, possibly distressing, times for the Australian cricket follower. If you are one you would have to be in your early thirties, at the very least, to have any conscious memory of a time when your national side was as poor as it is now, and, even if you're older and were around in the days of Murray Bennett and Andrew Hilditch (I wonder what happened to him?), there's a good chance that you've forgotten what it's like to see your side repeatedly humiliated at home by superior opponents. The fact that the team raised your hopes by beating the very same opponents with ease in the previous match probably just serves to increase the feeling of disorientation.
And it's no better for the players. The last time this sort of thing was going on Punter was playing for Mowbray under-10s and Steve Smith and Philip Hughes hadn't even made their debuts in the human race.
So what, as a spectator, when your flagging, toothless team needs your support more than ever, do you do?
Well, if the first day at the MCG is anything to go by, you decide before tea that you can't take any more and you simply walk out of the ground.
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Three memories of cricket in 2024
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8 comments:
The MCG (and other grounds) generally clear out a bit as the day progresses anyway, particularly when it is sunny, when it gets oppressive, so people drift to the beach instead. Tickets aren't that expensive so they don't feel as obliged to stay. And Boxing Day attracts a lot of non-cricket fans, for whom 7 hours of cricket is a long long day.
I'l confess too, I did leave, at about 6:15. I don't usually, but that was already 45 minutes past the scheduled close, my seat (and those of my friends who convinced me to) was facing directly into the sun (not that I couldn't have found another seat), I'd been up since 5:40am to get there, and Australia had given up.
But it was mostly the late finish that led people to go. Being flogged is one thing, having to sit through almost an extra session's worth of cricket of that flogging is something else.
The poor mites. They are just not as used to the feeling of losing as we are. Disappointing that so many of them decided to walk out, though. You never see that in England. Is it because we have seen so many losses, or we only want to watch cricket and don't care who wins, or is it just that we are all skinflints who want to get our money's worth?
Thanks, Russ. Thanks, Paddy.
Points taken, Russ. It was just that I'd been listening to the radio during the night and people had been going on about the 84,000 crowd. Then I got up and put the TV on and the ground looked half empty.
Mind you, with two wickets down already this morning I can sense the ground filling up!
It's usually India and Pakistan where that type of thing happens, but generally it is dependent on a particular batsman, rather than how the team is performing.
In India, grounds empty when Sachin is dismissed and I remember England playing a test in Pakistan, Shahid Afridi was dismissed cheaply, early in the afternoon and the camera showed thousands of fans heading for the exit. It was unbelievable.
Paddy, I think you might be onto something there. Thanks to Gile$ Clar£e, we have to sit through thick and thin for our moneys worth, and even then we are still getting robbed.
Brian, you're welcome. The two English fans I was chatting to were asking what time we'd finish by about 5pm too. The MCG is a hard place to watch test cricket, noisy, not comfortable, often not close to the action, very bright, very warm, with no place to get relief from the noise. As I said, a diminishing crowd isn't unusual and it has little to do with the result, and a lot to do with 8 hours in the sun. Plus, remember, half empty is still 50,000 people.
Today's crowd (67,000) was unusually large, incidentally, normally the second and third days are in the 30-40s. I suspect the Monday/Tuesday public holidays are enticing people to go later, and there are a lot of English fans in town.
Dean's comment about Indian fans only going to see Tendulkar bat brings to mind the story, possibly untrue, of the sign that would be put up outside Gloucestershire grounds in the 19th century: "admission 3d, if Dr Grace is batting 6d".
Maybe that is an idea that the ECB could bring in for the Test series next summer. Admission £40, £80 if Tendulkar is batting, £30 if Trott is batting.
Dean's comment about Indian fans only going to see Tendulkar bat brings to mind the story, possibly untrue, of the sign that would be put up outside Gloucestershire grounds in the 19th century: "admission 3d, if Dr Grace is batting 6d".
Maybe that is an idea that the ECB could bring in for the Test series next summer. Admission £40, £80 if Tendulkar is batting, £30 if Trott is batting.
Thanks again, Russ. I have been to the MCG (the Test in which Warne cleaned up England with a hat-trick, in 1994) and I really liked it as it was the first time I'd watched cricket abroad and it was just so different from any cricket ground in the UK. The only problem was the limited catering - I ate enough Four 'n Twenty pies that week to last a lifetime.
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