Out-of-season blues

Australia may have won their two-Test series against Zimbabwe at a relative canter, but the matches failed to grab the public's interest and both games were played out against backdrops of banks of empty seats.

Part of the problem was that a weak Zimbabwe side was never going to have widespread appeal, and also the matches were played very early in the Aussie summer - the international season doesn't usually kick off until the beginning of November - and Steve Waugh believes the timing was the major turnoff. "Obviously the culture's not there of watching Tests in the off-season," he shrugged. "I mean, it's a pretty good side to watch, and I don't know why they didn't turn up. They're going to have to do it a bit differently next year."

The series was also competing with end of the Australian Rules football season and the start of the rugby World Cup. The last day of the Sydney Test was watched by around 1300 spectators (an total of 18,500 paid to see the four days), leading Waugh to joke that he was thinking about going round and thanking them individually at the end of the game.

Officially, Cricket Australia is putting a positive spin on events, but privately it has to be not best pleased. James Sutherland, CA's chief executive, admitted that gates were "disappointing", but said that outside factors had materially affected interest. "I think that there were a lot of things that were conspiring against us for this series, and I would hope that in the future that we wouldn't have things conspire against us."

The Sydney gates were of particular concern, but Sutherland flat-batted suggestions that the matches were played in the wrong place at the wrong time. "Sydney is a market that has in the past supported Test cricket very well. But we have to recognise that it was out of season or out of time, and there were other reasons for that."

CA's other experiment, the Top End Tour - staging Tests in the north of the country during the close season - was also a mixed success. Again, the opponents - Bangladesh - were poor box office, but it was still predicted that 11,000 would turn out for Darwin's inaugural day of Test cricket. In the event, almost 7000 attended the first day and the crowds tailed off on the following two days. It was a similar story at Cairns. The acid test as to the viability of matches outside the season will come in July 2004, when the Sri Lankans, a more attractive draw, visit.