The following feature story was written by Bigstarcricket's Managing Editor Richard Sydenham in 2004, yet remains as prevalent a subject as almost five years ago then. With the advent of Twenty20 internationals since, Test matches are being further squeezed in the international schedule and their existence threatened in the longer term.

Cricket's Elite Format Faces Change as One-Day Games Lure Fans

(Copyright: Bloomberg) Cricket's five-day format for elite international matches, dating back decades, is in a slump because fans and television networks are turning to the excitement of one-day matches.

The Headingley ground in Leeds, northern England, with a capacity of 16,000 people, was about 25 per cent empty for last month's second Test match between England and NewZealand. In Pakistan, West Indies and Sri Lanka, there are even fewer spectators for the five-day game.

"We need a meeting of minds to see if Tests still work," Darren Millien, West Indies Cricket Board's chief marketing officer, said in a telephone interview from Antigua.

"What existed in the past is no longer applicable. To recycle the same thing would be to the detriment of Tests."

One-day internationals, with innovations such as coloured clothing and floodlit matches, are filling stadiums. News Corp. signed a record $550 million seven-year agreement in 2000 to broadcast premier one-day tournaments, including two World Cups. Test matches, so named because they provide a test of a player's bowling, batting and fielding skills, can end in a stalemate after five days and are proving harder to sell.

One-day matches always end in a result. When West Indies this year hosted England in venues across the Caribbean, Millien said he got sponsors such as Air Jamaica for the one-day series "far quicker" than for the Tests. There were four Test matches and seven one-day matches.

"For the Tests it was a matter of trying to break even, whereas with the one-day series we budgeted for about $3 million profit," he said. "Overall, 75 percent of our revenue comes from one-day cricket."

The England and Wales Cricket Board, which had 2002 sales of £67 million ($121 million) and a loss of £323,000, exploited the popularity of one-day cricket by introducing a new format last year, the Twenty20 Cup. Matches are completed in less than four hours and played under floodlights. England and Australia, which used to play timeless matches before World War II, will play the first international version next year.

Ramiz Raja, chief executive of the Pakistan Cricket Board, said Test cricket needs to learn from the success of the limited-overs game. One-day matches normally have 50 six-ball overs aside. Organizers should consider novelties such as offering tickets to a day at a Test match when fans buy a one-day ticket, he said.

"Tests need to be marketed better," Ramiz said in a telephone interview. "We should think about day-night Tests that would add colour and allow more people to watch."

Empty stands in March and April blighted India's first full tour of Pakistan for 14 years. The first Test, at a 28,000-capacity ground in Multan, central Pakistan, attracted 6,000 people for the first two days. All five one-day matches sold out as fans chanted, blew horns and donned face paint.

"People in Asia think of fast food, action, instant results, which all leads to one-day cricket," Ramiz said. "We need to ask why people don't come."

The West Indies Test series with England attracted large crowds in part because thousands of English fans used the cricket as a hook for vacations in Barbados and Antigua. Locals aren't interested, Millien said.

"We're in the instant-gratification era, where things must be fast-paced," he said. "We can't get under-30s at Test matches as they're slower-paced and may not have a result."

Few Sri Lankans watched their team host England in December, while Indians flock to the ground when their team is batting and leave when it's not. Only 7,000 fans saw Matthew Hayden set a record Test score of 380 for world champion Australia against Zimbabwe in Perth in October.

England is one of the few nations to make money from Tests. More than 100,000 people paid to watch the first match with NewZealand. Average viewing numbers for Channel 4's Test coverage account for about 16 per cent of the national audience, the company said.

The England and Wales Cricket Board probably earns more from Tests than one-day matches, events manager David Clarke said. It has a £150 million TV rights contract with Channel 4 and British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc, and series sponsorship from nPower, a U.K. utility owned by RWE AG.

"Crowds in England are some of the best," Clarke said in an interview at Headingley. "There's still huge potential, though, for English cricket to market itself better and promote itself as a quality entertainment."

Ian Bishop, marketing director at Yorkshire County Cricket Club, said he was "disappointed" with the 2,500 empty seats on Headingley's first day in what was the club's last Test until 2006. The one-day game it hosted last week between West Indies and England in July was sold out.

"It depends on the opposition," he said in an interview. "There's an awful lot more cricket played now so there's more choice."

The International Cricket Council, which monitors match attendances and TV viewing figures for all internationals, said it wants members to look at how to revive crowds rather than plan Test cricket's replacement. It's planning to stage a six-day Test and three one-day matches between the top-ranked team as of April 1, 2005, and a World XI in Sydney and Melbourne (which subsequently failed: ed).

"We've been saddled with a tired game that realistically isn't going away," Millien said. "We must revitalize the game to bring a younger audience and show it to be hip and cool without ostracizing the older fans."

{One cannot help thinking that although Twenty20 has taken the commercial appeal of cricket to a new high, the marketing of Test cricket is no better, more than four years after this story was written} 

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