Yeah, IPL had very little appeal to me. I was excited with it when I heard about it, and the player auction etc, watched the first game and thought "I don't give a **** whether the Delhi Bellyachers or Mumbai Mofos win".
The problem Test cricket faces in Australia is that very few visiting nations are competitive at that form of the game, and thus it's hard to attract a crowd. No better (or worse) example is the West Indies.
I can remember growing up and whenever the Windies came to Oz it was huge news. A ticket to the Test was a hot item. To see Richards, Ambrose, Walsh, Marshall, Greenidge, Haynes, Lara, Richardson...fucking superstars. You watch this summer coming, you'll be flat out getting a decent crowd on day 1.
Pakistan won't be much better.
Sri Lanka? Who gives a crap.
New Zealand? Please, the only people who go are ex-Kiwis.
Bangladesh? There's a reason we play tests against them in Cairns and Darwin.
The only drawcards here are England: traditional rivalry, helped greatly by their 2005 fluke.
South Africa and India - our closest and fiercest rivals.
ODIs are boring. But they do bring in bigger crowds than Test cricket, even against minnows. That said, playing 5-match series is risky. If one team leads 3-0 who wants to see dead rubber ODIs? They're relatively boring and formulaic as it is - despite all sorts of weird arse rules manufactured to try and make the game more exciting (power plays, free hits etc).
But at the same time, if you don't play 5 ODIs against each visiting nation, then the major capitals in Australia don't all get some cricket.
The way the programme has worked in recent years it's sucked being in Brisbane. In 2007-08 we got Sri Lanka. In 2008-09 we got New Zealand. Meanwhile Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide got India and South Africa respectively.
I don't know what the answer is. But I am concerned that the more ODI and T20 that gets played, the less nations are going to bother working on the longer form of the game and so the 3-way contest for best in the world will remain.
