Dwindling crowds due to too much cricket: Ponting

Updated on: 22 February,2010 08:42 AM IST |
Khalid A-H Ansari |

With Australia's hectic home season ending tomorrow with a T20 match against the West Indies, Ricky Ponting's men board a flight at 9 the next morning to begin their tour of New Zealand across the Tasman Sea.

The team's gruelling schedule has prompted the Australian captain to blame this season's poor one-day crowds to a surfeit of cricket rather than poor performances by Pakistan and the West Indies.

Aus captain Ricky Ponting

Only 15,538 spectators watched the home side crush the West indies last Friday night at the Melbourne Cricket Ground by 125 runs to complete an impressive unbeaten summer against the two touring sides, whom they whitewashed 9-0.

That figure was 39 per cent lower than the 25,463 which witnessed the first match of Chris Gayle's side a fortnight back.

"I'm not sure if the lack of contest had anything to do with it at all, to tell the truth," Ponting said.

"I just think we've played a whole lot. Look at all the days of cricket the public have had to pay to go and watch during the summer. I think that's probably the reason why the numbers have dwindled off in the last week."

However, Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young insists the reason for the decline in attendance at one-day games has been because of poor opposition for the home side.

"At the moment we are at the bottom of a four-year cycle towards the end of the summer where we've had, unfortunately, very lopsided contests," Young said. "The public at the end of the day has only got a certain appetite for walkovers.

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