Blundstone’s raw deal
CRICKET Tasmania chairman Andrew Gaggin has blasted Cricket Australia for being stuck in a 1990s time warp as the state continues to be overlooked for Test content.
Blundstone Arena has not hosted a Test since 2016 and in the past three seasons has received just two days worth of international action — one ODI and one T20.
Canberra has been awarded two T20 internationals in that time frame, along with Manuka Oval’s maiden Test against Sri Lanka in 2018-19.
Next summer Hobart will host New Zealand in the rescheduled ODI which was canned on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as a women’s 50-over clash between Australia and India.
Gaggin submitted a 13-page document to CA justifying more content, which also slams the notion that poor crowd turnouts to Test matches in the state should be a factor.
“The general theme when I look at it is, Cricket Australia seems to be stuck in a 1990s time warp in regards to Tasmania,” Gaggin told the Mercury. “Back in the 1990s, Cricket Australia’s revenue was one third crowd, one third sponsorship and one third media. Now crowds are about 8 per cent. They are nice cream, but 70 or 80 per cent of Cricket Australia’s revenue now comes from media.
“Cricket Australia still … expects that if games are fixtured here, that we’ll get a big crowd. Obviously we want that, but we have 230,000 people in Hobart. It’s been said to me that 5000 here is a poor crowd, and that shows Tasmanians aren’t that interested in Tests. “Well 5000 people equates to 2.5 per cent of Hobart’s population. When you look at that per capita with every other venue in Australia, we are miles ahead in relation to attendance. Don’t carve us up on that basis when you are not applying these metrics to any other venue in Australia.”
Gaggin is not pushing to secure an Ashes Test in a fivematch series, nor is he disappointed in missing out on India later year. But with Tasmania an equal one-sixth member at the table, he is fed up with the state not being in contention when smaller countries tour.
“We are not arguing in a five-Test Ashes summer that we should be allocated a Test, or an Indian one,” he said.
“If there’s a big game on and they can fill it, it is more revenue flowing in for everyone.
“That’s not our argument. We’d like the Ashes to be extended to six Tests and then we can have one, but all of those arguments go out the window when you start looking at low drawing nations. This year we have four Tests against India, we didn’t demand one of those, but then you have Afghanistan as the fifth Test and there seems to be this view that we are still in 1992 and Hobart just misses out, is not considered.”