sussexpob wrote:Not reviewed the series footage in a few years, but by memory, the crowds in India at stages were huge, and very loud and passionate..... seems Test cricket went downhill quickly from the early to mid 2000s....
My theory is that the lack of Test championship, lack of marquee test matches/series involving india, Remember England and india hardly played in those days, actually embarrassing how late ECB were in recognising india rise how they didn't see it in 1996 is beyond me.
Remember reading a very good book in Hull university around 3 or 4 am when I was bored during one of my all nighter in the library, basically was a book on the England failed attempt to get the 1996 cricket world cup and basically the writer was piss about how india brought the world cup and it was a disgrace it wasn't held in england and from that book it was apparent many in ECB still held that view probably explained why they didn't schedule many india vs england games between mid 90s and mid naughties and Australia did. from the book it was mentioned at the time the world cup was promised to be held in england in 1996, with Australia getting it in 1992, basically before ECB and CA lost their veto rights they agreed that the 1992 world cup was to be held in Australia and the 1996 world cup in england, but around 1992/93 Dalmiya Stole the world cup from england and at the same time destroyed their powers in the boardroom of icc was a really good book even if it was really old.
last factor was probably the shambolic 90s away performance, during that time india home performaces was downgraded a lot on TV and suspect that was the start of the away games factor that is still apparent in indian cricket and lastly the pitches the dull batting pitches on day 1-3 probably meant people didn't really want to watch the cricket at the ground.
the factors DDB mention are factors as well now.
But if in 2002-3 period india was able to play more marquee test matches especially at home then suspect the home crowd would still be here.
in 2001 believe England and Australia both toured india with a 3 match series each.
England didn't return again till 2006 for only 2 test matches and again in 2008 again for 2 test matches, wasn't until 2012 that England had a proper test series in india and it had a proper TV campaign and crowd interest, the other two were either very short or something major happened in one of the tours.
personally think it is insane that between 1996-2006 india barely played each other, I really can't find any valid reason of why England only tours india in 1992/3, 2001, 2006, 2008, insane to think they only played 10 Test matches in over 2 decades in india.
to be fair to australia they had the marquee series because of the border gavaskar trophy that started around 1990s, they had series in 2001, 2004, 2008, 2010, etc but baring that india test fans in india had nothing to see at home, especially at that time the bored was more interested in getting votes and buying supports so they generally played a lot more away matches, so india home season wasn't really that great during that time.
pretty sure if india had a set home season in 2002 period and they had a marquee series every 12-18 months at home then the test crowd would probably be good now.
Sadly not sure the test crowd will come back unless icc fixes the root problem of why they were gone in the first place.
2002-2004 no marquee Test games and then after the 2004 Aus series again no marquee test series in india till probably 2012.
2008 Aus series wasn't really the same because Australia were poor and SA was never really big and if they were big it was only 2 match series so again nothing big to build interest.
personally think it is a joke that someone that got into cricket in 2003/4ish had to wait what 12 bloody year to actually have a proper test series in india, imho even though india lost in 2012 it really felt at the time holy crap we got a proper test series and match in india.
2 match series against SA wasn't really the same of having 6-7 weeks of Test cricket and the build up etc.
Now it is probably too late when india finally get the test schedule it deserves and the crowds are gone.