The Australian team celebrates during the Twenty20 against India in Sydney.
CHANNEL Nine has added its influential voice to the push for more Twenty20 internationals as part of a new-look Australian summer, as the crowd for last night's rain-affected one-day series opener was bolstered by a vibrant Indian contingent at the MCG.
The bad weather, which reduced the contest to 32 overs a side, deprived Cricket Australia of a chance to take the pulse of the 50-over format.
A crowd of 29,959 outlasted the rain delay, and at times the strong and vocal support for India made the atmosphere more like Mumbai than Melbourne.
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The success of last week's two Twenty20 games against India in Melbourne and Sydney convinced Nine's head of sport, Steve Crawley, of the merits of changing the composition of the international season, but he warned against detracting from the novelty value of the shortest format by playing too many.
''The trick is getting the balance right. We would like more than two games, but how many more I am not smart enough to say,'' Crawley said.
''This year we have 15 one-dayers and two Twenty20s so there is a window there for more Twenty20s, but it is up to the wise people to decide how many, while still retaining the novelty that it is. Those crowds in Melbourne and Sydney were wonderful and the latitude the governing bodies gave us to mic up and interact with the players.''
Adding to the number of Twenty20 games would result in a reduction in the number of one-day internationals, and the endorsement of CA's broadcast partner will grease the wheels for change.
Before the rain, CA and the Melbourne Cricket Club had hoped for a crowd in excess of 40,000 last night.
The weather made it impossible to draw conclusions about the popularity of the format, which remains of vital importance to Cricket Australia as joint host of the 2015 World Cup.
CA chairman Wally Edwards last night told an official function at the MCG that 50-over cricket was the most-watched format in the world. For that reason, it has enormous commercial importance as CA prepares to sell its broadcast rights for beyond 2013.
Crawley said more meaningful assessments could be made after the triangular series, also involving Sri Lanka, concludes on March 8.
''Our cricket numbers are up 20 per cent so far this year on last summer. This will be an interesting year [for the one-dayers] because we're going into March and stretching into NRL.''
Nine's average audience for the two Twenty20 games, which attracted crowds of 59,659 in Sydney and 62,275 in Melbourne, was just short of 1.5 million.
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