Is 20/20 losing its charm?

Posted by John Winn

Other commitments rather inhibit my midweek cricket watching at the moment but I decided I could spare a day off yesterday and took the train to Durham and walked down to the Racecourse Ground where the university were taking on MCC in a three day game. Close pf play on Monday had left DUCC on 254 for 6 off 87 overs on a wicket described as 'hard'. This rate of under three an over suggested that Tuesday's cricket had been less than gripping and to the dismay of the MCC scorer the home side batted on for 45 minutes yesterday losing three wickets and adding 54. to the total in 12 overs. That the run rate finally got above three was due entirely to some lusty hitting by the ninth wicket pair and when that partnership ended captain Westley declared the innings closed on 308.
The two scorers kindly provided me with details of the teams and Tuesday's scorecard. The university has a number of players with county second eleven experience, England Under 19 and ECB Premier league experience. Some indeed have played first class cricket for county sides.MCC were mainly southern based club cricketers and in the majority of cases cricket archive drew a blank when their names were searched. One name I recognised was that of Twigg who I believe plays for Harrogate.
By lunch MCC had lost three for 40 at the same scoring rate as the university in their innings, namely just under three an over. A heavy shower fell during lunch and play did not resume until three o'clock. During the rain break I enjoyed a most interesting chat with the two umpires, Messrs Davidson and Goodman, without whose help on arrival I would have had virtually no idea who was playing.On resumption play brightened up, as had the weather, and the MCC batsman began to push the score along. I decided to cut my losses however and strolled back towards the station via the riverside path. Being Wednesday and the university in session there were a number of rowing crews in action which added interest to the walk.
Now it's confession time. Late yesterday evening I switched on the TV in time to see Leicestershire's innings against Lancashire in the T20 competition. The Foxes made a decent start but were pegged back by Lancashire's spinners to a point where their prospects appeared hopeless. Enter Abdul Razzaq, who only arrived in England on Tuesday, and yet was able to hit 62 off 30 balls including five sixes to win the game for his new (very new) county, by four wickets.Further confession, I enjoyed it, who could not? But the point of owning up to this evening of what some might consider heresy, is to ask one question. Where were the crowd? Most of the TV shots showed rows and rows of empty seats.Official crowd figures were not given, indeed I don't recall the commentators making any reference to the paucity of spectators, but if this form of cricket is the life blood of the game, then it looked pretty anaemic last night.In fairness, circumstances were against a big crowd. It was raining, it was televised, Leicestershire are not noted for travelling support and there is another game at Old Trafford on Friday when there may well be a sellout.And perhaps that last point is the most salient, why two home games in three nights? Whatever the reason I am prepared to wager a small sum, very small, that given a half decent day there will be a much bigger crowd at the Riverside on Saturday June 18th when Durham play Yorkshire in the LV County Championship.