Today is, or rather should be, one of the great days in the sporting calendar: the first day of an Ashes series. In terms of cricket, the Ashes is as good as it gets. So much history, that incredibly rivalry, the electric excitement. The nation expects. Except that it doesn’t.
Remember 2005 when England finally recaptured the Ashes? 8.2 million viewers was the peak figure for Channel Four’s excellent terrestrial coverage, the players were household names. Vaughan, Flintoff, Pietersen, Strauss – all of them would have been recognised by huge numbers of the public. They paraded through London and famously had a few sherbets in Number 10. The country rejoiced.
By 2009, cricket had moved lock, stock and barrel to Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV in exchange for a substantial number of pieces of silver. Barring Test highlights on Channel 5, there was no cricket on terrestrial TV at all. And the peak audience figure for the Ashes on Sky? 1.9 million. Four years later, another Ashes series and the peak audience figure? 1.3 million. The media is filled to bursting point with Ashes previews, but how many of us are really interested?
Whilst cricket thrives in the affluent suburbs, cricket participation since 2005 is in steep decline, barely played in most state schools, not played at all in many others. It is a matter of fact that you are for likely today to play cricket for England if you went to a private school where the game still thrives, unaffected by drastic cuts to funding to schools and the continued sale of school playing fields.
The stars of 2005 became household names. They transcended their sport like the cricketing superstars of the past like Botham. They were surely the last ones who will, as long as cricket remains confined to a minority cable and satellite audience. If, for example, skipper Alastair Cook walked into my local pub with James Anderson, our most successful wicket taker, cricket fans would instantly recognise them, but ordinary people would not have a clue. These are the ordinary people like me who will, for example, take a sudden interest in archery during the Olympics and know the names and faces of the medal winners. Cricket is becoming confined to cricket fans.
I note the huge amounts of money that flow into the cricket bodies’ coffers from Sky and read stories about how it benefits local clubs. True, in part, but I know of clubs, including local clubs, who struggle desperately with money, which exist solely through voluntary work and subsidies from local people and businesses and subscriptions. It can be a grind trying to maintain a local club. Many are dumping third and second teams, some are even giving up altogether.
Back to TV audience figures and the peak figure of 1.3 million from 2013 sounds disappointing to me and it is because the figures for matches other than the Ashes are far smaller, barely one fifth. Put another way, the peak viewing figures for non Ashes Tests are barely more than 250,000 and the average figures well below that.
I remember coming home from work and from school to watch live Test match coverage on the BBC. And I remember going to work the following day to talk about it. The casual fan knew who most of the stars were, but not any more.
The atmosphere today in Cardiff – but why start in Cardiff and not Lords? Why start a game on a Wednesday and not a Thursday? – will be sensational but the game is preaching to the converted. But who, other than the fanatics, will be interested in Sri Lanka and Pakistan next year? Even I, as slightly more than a casual viewer but much less than a fanatic, will struggle to watch any of it.
It would be an exaggeration, and quite frankly wrong, to say that cricket is dying, especially as the Ashes is about to play out before sold out stadia, but it’s beginning to get stuck in its heartland and that is where it will remain for at least as long as it remains tucked away on pay TV and whilst it continues to decline in clubs and in state schools.
