WatchThe simultaneous fall an rise of Indian cricket
Even as it goes from bad to worse for India on the Test field, the rise of Indian cricket power continues.
AUSTRALIAN cricket might be frolicking in the success of the Indian summer, but at the same time it's killing the game's biggest cash cow.
India's 3-0 thrashing in the Test series is out-rating the Ashes series for the Nine Network, but having the opposite effect at home.
Australian viewers cannot get enough of Dave Warner lighting up their Friday nights, but Indians are finding it hard to eat their breakfast and stomach the ignominious failures of MS Dhoni's men.
The ICC is watching the situation with interest and hoping that the sorry recent performances by the proud cricket nation encourages the BCCI to take Test cricket more seriously.
However, there is also a concern that the trouble and expense might further turn the country away from the long form of the game.
It costs a lot of money to run its Test program and stage five-day matches which can often be unprofitable. And it's a cost that has caused headaches in other countries.
Sri Lanka's financially drained cricket board has not included any Tests for India's visit this year and South Africa only hosted two Tests against Australia for similar reasons.
India, like everybody else, makes most of its money from one-day and Twenty20 cricket.
Indian cricket, however, accounts for 70 per cent of the world's cricket revenue. When a canary in the BCCI sneezes the world catches bird flu. Australia and the game of Test cricket will suffer if the subcontinent loses interest in the form.
The good news for Australia is that the Perth Test, with Dave Warner's prime-time heroics, have been a boon for the Nine Network.
The Test series ratings is up 33.7 per cent against the Ashes series last summer. The network was reporting a 36 per cent lift in ratings compared to the Perth
Ashes match at the same venue last year.
Warner's century-in-a-session on the Friday night attracted a peak of 2.76 million viewers while nine million watched the abbreviated match over the course of the 2 1/2 days.
Nine's head of sport, Steve Crawley, said the Test match ratings were up across the board.
He identified the side's success and the presence of the power hitting Warner as the reason behind the public's love of this summer.
"Kids drive a lot of television sets, particularly when they are on holidays in summer, and he's the king of the kids," Crawley said.
"It's not like Test cricket when Warner plays.
"He's done more to stir the imagination of our country's cricket fans than any other cricketer for a long time. Him and Pat Cummins and James Pattinson represent a new era."
According to reports from the subcontinent, television ratings have dropped during the Australian tour and advertisers are beginning to demand better value for their money from the game.
The Economic Times of India reported troubling times for the side with its seventh straight loss on the road and predicted a 20 per cent drop in the value of advertising rates.
"There's absolutely no doubt that advertising rates will fall in the forthcoming series," Punita Arumugam, a media group chief executive officer of Madison, which buys media for a number of big brands, told the respected newspaper.
Vehicle manufacturer Maruti Suzuki, one of the key sponsors of the series, says it is unhappy with the results.
"While we will continue to invest in cricket, we feel cricket is over-priced," Maruti marketing general manager Shashank Srivastava said.
Ratings for the Australian series in India are half what they were for the 4-0 whitewash in England and the rating agency claimed several advertisers were pulling out of the series.
Source:http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/drubbing-could-turn-india-away-from-playing-tests/story-e6frg7rx-1226246776245
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