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Unpopular opinions..... cricket is a dying, irrelevant sport. Doesn't even know how long it is played for. A few hours? A day? 5 days? The only game it sells out (in England anyway) is the Ashes. County games are watched by a few old men and a dog. Wouldn't recognise any cricket players if I fell over them in the street.
Hand grenade pin removed. Discuss.
 
Basing Blade said:
Unpopular opinions..... cricket is a dying, irrelevant sport. Doesn't even know how long it is played for. A few hours? A day? 5 days? The only game it sells out (in England anyway) is the Ashes. County games are watched by a few old men and a dog. Wouldn't recognise any cricket players if I fell over them in the street.
Hand grenade pin removed. Discuss.
Click to expand...

Where do you want me to start :)

What I will say is that by taking the Sky coin the ECB have done a LOT of damage to the game on a wider appeal basis, we really should have at least one test and a full ODI and T20 series on terrestrial TV to garner interest. The Hundred (for all it's faults and how much I don't like it) does have this element and Trent Bridge has pretty much sold out for all Trent Valley Dambuster games or whatever they are called so it is working on some level as an entry to the sport.

Cricket is arguably the second biggest sport in the UK, certainly vying for that spot with Egg Chasing. Circa 13 million people class themselves as fans of the sport, 11 million watched it on more than one occasion in 2024 and the bbc sport website regularly has their live county championship feed as the most visited web page. This has increased in this decade, so the sport isn't dying.

Many England games sell out, not just the Ashes. All the summer tests against the Windies and Sri Lanka (probably two of the lowest 'draws' in Test Cricket) had several days of sold out test venues and Lords pretty much sells out every year.

As for county cricket, yes attendances aren't great for the four day game but interest is high and lots of the issue with attendance is down to timings of the games. However go to some of the out grounds and you'll have wonderful days where it sells out regularly, such as the Scarborough festival in August as an example.

Surrey, Middlesex and Yorkshire can easily get over 10k attendances for the full four days of a county game, especially at crunch times and lots of the T20 blast games for all counties are sold out or near to sell outs.

You may not recognise an England cricketer if you bumped into one in the street but to be honest, I'd struggle with your average premier league player so that isn't a yardstick for a sport's relevance.

Yes cricket could and should be bigger, but it is far from dead and far from irrelevant. Indeed the bubbling tension building to the crescendo of a close finish in a test match after 5 days of ebb and flow is one of the finest sporting spectacles for those in appreciation.

Long live stickball.
 
Bladepicker said:
Where do you want me to start :)

What I will say is that by taking the Sky coin the ECB have done a LOT of damage to the game on a wider appeal basis, we really should have at least one test and a full ODI and T20 series on terrestrial TV to garner interest. The Hundred (for all it's faults and how much I don't like it) does have this element and Trent Bridge has pretty much sold out for all Trent Valley Dambuster games or whatever they are called so it is working on some level as an entry to the sport.

Cricket is arguably the second biggest sport in the UK, certainly vying for that spot with Egg Chasing. Circa 13 million people class themselves as fans of the sport, 11 million watched it on more than one occasion in 2024 and the bbc sport website regularly has their live county championship feed as the most visited web page. This has increased in this decade, so the sport isn't dying.

Many England games sell out, not just the Ashes. All the summer tests against the Windies and Sri Lanka (probably two of the lowest 'draws' in Test Cricket) had several days of sold out test venues and Lords pretty much sells out every year.

As for county cricket, yes attendances aren't great for the four day game but interest is high and lots of the issue with attendance is down to timings of the games. However go to some of the out grounds and you'll have wonderful days where it sells out regularly, such as the Scarborough festival in August as an example.

Surrey, Middlesex and Yorkshire can easily get over 10k attendances for the full four days of a county game, especially at crunch times and lots of the T20 blast games for all counties are sold out or near to sell outs.

You may not recognise an England cricketer if you bumped into one in the street but to be honest, I'd struggle with your average premier league player so that isn't a yardstick for a sport's relevance.

Yes cricket could and should be bigger, but it is far from dead and far from irrelevant. Indeed the bubbling tension building to the crescendo of a close finish in a test match after 5 days of ebb and flow is one of the finest sporting spectacles for those in appreciation.

Long live stickball.
Click to expand...
You fell right into his trap there, BP.

UTB
 
FredZeppelin said:
Darts isn't a sport, it's a drinking game (imo).

🫢

utb
Click to expand...
I don't think it meets Webding 's rules of what a sport actually is.

Something about shoes and sweat? Can't remember the details but it works as a good working definition.

Mind you, every now and again I do enjoy watching this once more:



Can't spayk!
 
Last edited:
Basing Blade said:
So some England matches sell out on some days. Some games get over 10,000 people. Whoooooo fancy.
Click to expand...

practically all England matches sell out on most days. It is the second most watched, played and searched for sport in the UK. Very fancy eh?

FredZeppelin said:
You fell right into his trap there, BP.

UTB
Click to expand...

I know and I've gone in for a second nibble :D
 
Basing Blade said:
Unpopular opinions..... cricket is a dying, irrelevant sport. Doesn't even know how long it is played for. A few hours? A day? 5 days? The only game it sells out (in England anyway) is the Ashes. County games are watched by a few old men and a dog. Wouldn't recognise any cricket players if I fell over them in the street.
Hand grenade pin removed. Discuss.
Click to expand...

You have been judged. Sentencing will take place in due course.
 
Basing Blade said:
So some England matches sell out on some days. Some games get over 10,000 people. Whoooooo fancy.
Click to expand...
Feels a bit like you don’t like cricket and are basing your views on that. I don’t like quite a few sports but that doesn’t mean they’re irrelevant or dying it just means it’s not for me.
If your sole argument is comparing attendances (careful who you sound like) to football that is a bit harsh. By that parameter there wouldn’t be any other sports at all.
 
jim2007 said:
I don't think it meets Webding 's rules of what a sport actually is.

Something about shoes and sweat? Can't remember the details but it works as a good working definition.

Mind you, every now and again I do enjoy watching this once more:



Can't spayk!
Click to expand...

Andy Fordham used to sweat tons.
 

Bladepicker said:
practically all England matches sell out on most days.
Click to expand...

Half a year+ ahead of fixtures, too. Not much left at all, already, for the first three days of any of the Tests v India next summer—apart from Lord’s, which hasn’t gone to general sale yet and will be oversubscribed many times over.
 
As a resident of Australia nowadays, I can 100% confirm that cricket isn’t dying… it’s amazing, on telly 5 times a week during Big Bash, strong domestic championship, and red hot test series (almost total sell out) versus India at the moment. Ashes also a mega draw over here.

Big difference = all on terrestrial telly and Foxtel (Sky equivalent). They share for the good of the game and to let a wide range of people have access. Same for Australian football, rugby, tennis, etc. If you have money you get 100% of the games ad free, if you don’t you can still keep up and head down the pub if necessary for the biggest games.

Really is one of the main plus points of being here and makes up for all the crazy o’clock starts watching the blades every week. As soon as this changes, as it has in the UK, then sports feel dead and that is a very sad thing.
 
Bladepicker said:
Where do you want me to start :)

What I will say is that by taking the Sky coin the ECB have done a LOT of damage to the game on a wider appeal basis, we really should have at least one test and a full ODI and T20 series on terrestrial TV to garner interest. The Hundred (for all it's faults and how much I don't like it) does have this element and Trent Bridge has pretty much sold out for all Trent Valley Dambuster games or whatever they are called so it is working on some level as an entry to the sport.

Cricket is arguably the second biggest sport in the UK, certainly vying for that spot with Egg Chasing. Circa 13 million people class themselves as fans of the sport, 11 million watched it on more than one occasion in 2024 and the bbc sport website regularly has their live county championship feed as the most visited web page. This has increased in this decade, so the sport isn't dying.

Many England games sell out, not just the Ashes. All the summer tests against the Windies and Sri Lanka (probably two of the lowest 'draws' in Test Cricket) had several days of sold out test venues and Lords pretty much sells out every year.

As for county cricket, yes attendances aren't great for the four day game but interest is high and lots of the issue with attendance is down to timings of the games. However go to some of the out grounds and you'll have wonderful days where it sells out regularly, such as the Scarborough festival in August as an example.

Surrey, Middlesex and Yorkshire can easily get over 10k attendances for the full four days of a county game, especially at crunch times and lots of the T20 blast games for all counties are sold out or near to sell outs.

You may not recognise an England cricketer if you bumped into one in the street but to be honest, I'd struggle with your average premier league player so that isn't a yardstick for a sport's relevance.

Yes cricket could and should be bigger, but it is far from dead and far from irrelevant. Indeed the bubbling tension building to the crescendo of a close finish in a test match after 5 days of ebb and flow is one of the finest sporting spectacles for those in appreciation.

Long live stickball.
Click to expand...

So we have to read facts on Cricket now as well as football? Really, what is this forum becoming?
 
Basing Blade said:
Unpopular opinions..... cricket is a dying, irrelevant sport. Doesn't even know how long it is played for. A few hours? A day? 5 days? The only game it sells out (in England anyway) is the Ashes. County games are watched by a few old men and a dog. Wouldn't recognise any cricket players if I fell over them in the street.
Hand grenade pin removed. Discuss.
Click to expand...
Heathen !!!
 

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