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Spare the crocodile tears over ODI cricket – be grateful to Pakistan for exposing Aussie also-rans

Enough of the faux outrage about the small crowds in the recent one-day series against Pakistan.

The whinging about none of Australia’s best cricketers playing in the current Twenty 20 series against the same opponent, so they can prepare for the first Test against India in Perth, beginning next Friday.

Are they some of the same people who whinged about the future of Test cricket when one-day matches in the 80s and 90s were attracting near full houses, or when the Big Bash took off?

Australian cricket fans should be grateful that this country’s stars prioritise Test cricket. That the only contest which really matters is for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in the first five-Test series between these two heavy weights for more than 30 years.

This is not the same in a number of other Test nations, led by South Africa, where the country’s incompetent administrators have sold their soul to IPL franchise owners.

The recent Australia A v India A first class lead-up matches to decide who would open the batting with Usman Khawaja in Perth were of more interest than the white ball frolics.

Usman Khawaja of Australia celebrates his century during Day 2 of the LV= Insurance Ashes 1st Test match between England and Australia at Edgbaston on June 17, 2023 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Indeed, a 10am press conference with chairman of selectors George Bailey at the MCG last Sunday announcing Nathan McSweeney as Australia’s next Test player generated more media attention than the third and final one-day match in Perth.

Pakistan romped to an eight-wicket victory at Perth Stadium to claim their first one-day series in Australia for 22 years after beating Australia by nine wickets in Adelaide two days earlier.

If anyone really thinks the white ball stuff is of any consequence, which country played those matches in Australia last season? If you said Australia beat the West Indies 3-0 in the one-dayers and 2-1 in the T20s without looking up the results, you’d be in a tiny minority.

It’s worth noting that whatever teams Australia have been putting out for 50 over games, the 2-1 loss to Pakistan is the first time Australia have lost at home in seven series. That’s 15 wins and four losses.

And believe it or not, that big finish by Pakistan in this one-day series was good for Australian cricket.

It gave the likes of Matt Short, BBL player of the year during the last two seasons, the over-hyped Jake Fraser-McGurk and promising allrounder Aaron Hardie a real world look at how far away they are from top level cricket.

Pakistan’s quality pace attack, led by Shaheen Shah Afridi, humiliated the Australians in the last two matches, with Afridi taking 3-26 and 3-32 to reclaim the top ranking among the world’s one-day bowlers.

Jake Fraser-McGurk after being dismissed by Pakistan's Naseem Shah.

Jake Fraser-McGurk after being dismissed by Pakistan’s Naseem Shah. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

Introducing players to international cricket in white ball matches is hardly new. Mark Waugh made his one-day debut more than two years ahead of his Test debut and David Warner played T20 cricket for Australia ahead of Sheffield Shield cricket for NSW. Both went on to play well over 100 Tests.

Kerry Packer drew a whole new audience to the game with one-dayers during World Series Cricket almost half a century ago, keeping cricket in the mainstream instead of becoming a curiosity.

These new fans eventually graduated to Test cricket, crossing over during the mid 90s.

Boxing Day at the MCG didn’t become a regular thing until 1981, when Dennis Lillee bowled Viv Richards off the last ball of the day in one of the most famous wickets ever captured by an Australian.

I was there that day and can still hear the chants of Lillee reverberating around the cauldron long after Lillee and his celebrating teammates charged off the ground. The crowd was about 40,000.

There were only two crowds of above 50,000 on the opening day of the MCG Test during the first 14 years of the “tradition”, both against England. It wasn’t until Sri Lanka attracted a surprisingly healthy 55,000 on Boxing Day 1995 that large crowds became a regular feature of cricket’s biggest day.

This was about the time that the primary school kids who were seduced by the one-day razzmatazz of lights, coloured clothes and action introduced by World Series Cricket had grown into discerning adults.

Now families take their kids to the Big Bash, which has regularly attracted a million fans to games during the school holiday period.

And the irony of the complaints about the one-day crowds against Pakistan is that they actually weren’t too bad.

Almost 26,000 at the MCG in game one would have filled Lord’s and overflowed at every other England Test ground, the almost 22,000 in Adelaide would have been a comfortable crowd before the major redevelopment, and the almost 20,000 at Perth Stadium would not have fitted into the WACA Ground across the river.

But the white ball stuff will be forgotten long before the first ball is bowled in the Perth Test next week.


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