Media of old Anglos artificially continue to pump it up. It will eventually become obscure in global world. Even in India the youth rather follow EPL than "boring cricket".

Mate it's unaustrayan not to be into cricket! it's also unaustrayan to be into them seppo sports like basketball.
Actually for most of my life I was right into cricket. I don't find the sport boring. These days it's mostly my dislike of the national team players that puts me off watching more of it.

There would be a generational factor too. Kids in the olden days like me had cricket, footy & tennis on free to air tv and there weren't many channels to pick from, so if you were a sports fan then there's a good chance you grew up with those sports.
Very different landscape today for sports viewing.

Over 100 years of history and tradition of cricket in this country. It'll be popular for a long long time.

No, it won't. We have entertainment choices now unlike the days of three TV channels which meant everyone watched it by default.

Is it school holidays already?

Cricket has a tradition in this country that basketball could only wish it had. It is intertwined without the fabric of Australian society. Plus Australia has been at times the best team in the world.

With that said, it does feel like it is in decline in popularity, like many longer form sports (for example, baseball in the US, once America's pastime).

Footy (either code depending where you are) is the dominant product, aided by being the elite competition in the world (not really something to brag about, considering the competition or lack there of). Thus crickey being played in separate season (locally), and being more worldly (or at least countries conquered by the British) gives it more prestige, compared to the NBL which maybe pushes for the Top 10 of leagues in basketball.

I'm all for bball taking over though. Australian cricket makes me sad.

Cricket is dying a slow death in Australia.

Kinda feels like it's moved into baseball territory for us, more about history and legacies than it is about the actual product. I have some friends who would consider themselves passionate cricket supporters, but I wonder if they've been to more than a few games over the past couple of years, or even watched a test match other than as background noise. Not a fan myself, but T20 is probably the future of cricket (or present, even), but I can see test matches going the way of the dodo in the not so distant future.

Don't agree with that LC. It's still the only national sport, generates big TV ratings and extensive media coverage. The growth of T20 and the women's game probably means it's as pervasive as ever, even if in a different way.

Total attendance Average Year
1,756,131 24,734 2016-17 Cricket

316,018 6,724 2015-16 Basketball


The number of spectators attending NBL/WNBL vs BBL/WBBL

Tends to suggest cricket is a long way from death

sorry for the shit formatting of that post

Total attendance	Average	Year	Sport
1,756,131	24,734	2016-17	Cricket
316,018	6,724	Basketball

Well, it's better but I still screwed it up.

How is Basketball more popular than Extreme Frisbee? I just don't get it

The livelihood of cricket is being propped up bigtime by BBL and shorter forms; so when you say cricket is still huge popular (or that it is declining), it ultimately actually depends on which format you're referring to.

My own personal opinion is that I watch much less sport (And much less cricket) in particular that I did 5 years ago.

I just don't have the time anymore; and I suspect a lot of people don't have the same amount of time to watch sport, and in particular, cricket;

We have so many things to do/so many choices in life now - stuff that people probably didn't do 20-odd years ago. It's not 'Im coming home to watch cricket/sport'; it's 'I have to go and do ____ [insert one of 100 different things]'.

You cant compare attendances to an outdoor sport played in huge stadiums with an indoor sport played with much smaller comparisons.

You could compare percentage of capacity filled though to get an idea of demand which basketball (NBL) would fare quite well.

Cricket is dying off though with interest obviously waning but the rusted on mainstream media wont let it die completely - just yet.

Foxtel/7 have 1.2 billion reasons to hope you're wrong

Crickets still great, but as someone said, there aren't really many likeable characters around. I watched cricket religiously up until guys like Bevan, Gilchrist, Langer, Ponting, Symonds etc all retired. Was tough to find anyone to root for after this period. Still enjoy BBL, but I'd rather have the live test score up than watch the actual game.

Cricket for majority of Aussie sports fans over 30 is ingrained in their pshycie, for people under 30 it's a different story. T20 has given some life back to the younger audience but that's crickets last hope of remaining a top tier sport, basketball is one of the next in line to fill the void. I'm talking 30 years not 3.

Honestly there is 3 things I have loved my whole life Hip Hop, Cricket and Basketball so religiously no other sports or things really interest me that much.

"The livelihood of cricket is being propped up bigtime by BBL and shorter forms; so when you say cricket is still huge popular (or that it is declining), it ultimately actually depends on which format you're referring to."

I think around 900K attended the Ashes tests last year and 600K were at the India series the year before and the TV ratings were big, so there is still plenty of love for test cricket against the right opponent.

With BBL growing the cricket attendance records in Aus were broken the past two years, so it is still a dominant force in Australian sport, even though we're in a down period for the top team that drives a lot of the interest.

Cricket has been with thousands of families in this country for generations. At Christmas, they get a bat and a ball out and start playing much like the other families who get the football out. It is a tradition ingrained for well over a century. Football and cricket will always be more popular than basketball in Australia and it doesn't matter what the NBL, NBA or the Boomers ever do.

Its pretty hard for basketball to make inroads into building of history with the guy running the league so flippantly throwing out the team with the most history.

"Its pretty hard for basketball to make inroads into building of history with the guy running the league so flippantly throwing out the team with the most history.

"

Yeah, that's definitely LK's fault, not the fault of fans who can't be bothered turning up or anything like that.

"Cricket never has anyone watching domestic cricket, if basketball were in a position to play a series against USA, Greece, Spain every year it would be a different out come. If you compare sheild cricket or club cricket to the nbl, I know who gets more spectators and viewers and it ain't cricket."

This might hold true for Sheffield Shield and domestic 1 day comp, but BBL is quite popular. But that's being sold as sports entertainment, not sport.

According to Professor Google:

The cricket.com.au website doesn’t seem to list domestic Sheffield shield or 1 day attendances; and

The abc has an article urging cricket to play domestic games in regional centres (Cairns, Darwin were mentioned). Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-23/bevan-play-domestic-cricket-somewhere-people-want-to-watch-it/6876610

Fair to say that domestic cricket crowds are not something that cricket authorities are bragging about. NBL crowds, on the other hand, have a far more positive trajectory in capital cities.

Basketball crowds will always be limited by being an indoor sport. So any games vs USA etc played in a proper arena won’t be able to sell 50k or more tickets.

" Plus Australia has been at times the best team in the world."

But aren't there only a handful of countries that play the game on a full-time professional basis?

"You cant compare attendances to an outdoor sport played in huge stadiums with an indoor sport played with much smaller comparisons.

You could compare percentage of capacity filled though to get an idea of demand which basketball (NBL) would fare quite well. "

Isn't that only valid if the small indoor stadiums were sold out every game and there were waiting lists to get in?

Basketball's crowds aren't smaller than cricket because of limited capacity, it's because more people are interested in cricket.

who cares if Aus is a big fish in a small pond - they were CHAMPIONS, and that's all that matter to a lot of people.

"Basketball's crowds aren't smaller than cricket because of limited capacity, it's because more people are interested in cricket."

Yes and no. Playing in bigger arenas seems to bring more people through the door. There have been a number of examples of teams moving from bigger venues to smaller venues and not selling them out, even when their previous average was greater than the new venues' capacity, and vice versa moving to a bigger venue and getting significantly bigger crowds.

That said, playing in smaller stadiums is not the reason basketball gets smaller crowds than the more popular forms of cricket!

"Yes and no. Playing in bigger arenas seems to bring more people through the door. There have been a number of examples of teams moving from bigger venues to smaller venues and not selling them out, even when their previous average was greater than the new venues' capacity, and vice versa moving to a bigger venue and getting significantly bigger crowds."

Interesting theory. Maybe it's the brand stigma associated with moving to a bigger, flashier venue ("it is new and exciting and demand must be good to be moving into a bigger stadium") and similarly moving to a smaller, inferior venue ("that product is on the decline and I don't want anything to do with it" e.g. Townsville Crocs playing in that old recreation centre type building).

The main point is that you cant really compare the two sports like for like. Not only are the stadiums completely uncomparable, but every thing else from infrastructure, media, tradition, finances etc etc make the two sports uncomparable.

One advantage the NBL has over cricket is percentage of capacity filled in their venues. Even though NBL clubs arent selling out every venue every game, venues are much fuller than cricket matches are (apart from the really big matches such as boxing day test). Therefore atmosphere and intensity is better at basketball games than cricket.

But yes cricket is obviously more popular and will likely never change despite how much the NBL grows.

Not great evidence there. Would be interesting to see the demographics of their crowds the past two years when they've broken the all-time record for cricket attendance in Australia. What is the difference in demographics between BBL and Tests? I imagine a high percentage at BBL would be younger fans, but that's just a guess.