Champagne celebrations

Rohit Mahajan

Tribune News Service

London, July 16

John Courtneidge, 68, a PhD in chemistry, a Quaker and a pacifist and a thinker, has never seen Roger Federer in action, even on television — he doesn’t own one, in fact. From the perspective of tennis-crazies, that’s a wasted life, then.

But then, there’s more to life than tennis, or sport — the human brain, says Courtneidge, is over-engineered and needs to be immersed in activities that keep it occupied. Courtneidge has kept his occupied in more scholarly activities, such as chemistry, spiritualism, human nature and the pursuit of his ideal of ‘co-operative socialism’.

So, cricket, then? Is he interested in cricket? Is he aware that his team, England, has won the World Cup? He isn’t, and he doesn’t care too much for the term ‘winner’, too, presumably because this implies that there’d be a ‘loser’ as well. On another train journey, I met Alex, another non-cricket-enthusiast, from Chichester, who had been cycling with his wife near London over the weekend, during which England ‘conquered’ the world of cricket. Alex, in his late 20s, says he’s not too keen about cricket — football and rugby are his sports.

Wimbledon beats cricket

For a one-sport nation such as India, men such as Courtneidge and Alex would be perplexing — they didn’t know on Sunday evening or Monday morning that their country’s national team had won cricket’s World Cup!

But then, though cricket is the national sport of England, it’s in fact the fourth-most popular sport (as per TV figures) of the country after football, rugby and tennis. On Sunday, simultaneously with the second half of the cricket World Cup final, a tennis match was also played in London — the men’s singles final at Wimbledon between Federer and Novak Djokovic. Tennis beat cricket. The tennis final attracted a peak TV viewership of 9.6 million on BBC 1; England’s win in the cricket World Cup final over New Zealand was watched by a peak viewership of 7.9 million on Channel 4 plus Sky. If the cricket final had not been shown on the free-to-air Channel 4 and only on the rights-holder Sky TV, the peak viewership of the cricket final could have been only 3.5 million. Football beat both Wimbledon and the cricket World Cup final in terms of top TV viewership in England so far this year — the women’s World Cup semifinal between England and the USA had a peak viewership of 11.7 million, and an average viewership of 10.3 million. For men’s football, the figures are significantly higher — during England’s defeat by Croatia in last year’s men’s football World Cup, the viewership peaked at 26.5 million — roughly 40 per cent of the whole of the United Kingdom. Cricket in England can only dream of achieving such figures.

Courtneidge had greeted me with a ‘namaste’, for he tries to “greet people in their own languages and in their own cultural ways”. That’s a kind thought: I repaid it somewhat by describing to him the joy of watching Federer move around the tennis court. He said he’d look up Federer on Youtube. As for cricket, he’s not interested.

Cricket crisis?

Cricket is perpetually in a crisis in this country. At the county level, it’s in dire straits. “On a good day when the sun is out, you could have up to 1,000 people watching a game of county cricket,” says an official of the Warwickshire Cricket Club, who owns the iconic stadium at Edgbaston. “But on some days when there’s a possibility of rain, it could be as few as only a 100 people watching a match.” Domestic, multi-day cricket’s viewership is older, too, generally less attractive to the advertisers. The chief sponsor of the County Championship is Specsavers, who specialise in eye care, and sell eyeglasses and contact lenses — a clear sign that county cricket’s sparse viewership comprises people who are getting on in years.

Inspire a generation

Cricket is declining in England, though the figures of attendances and TV viewership at the World Cup might raise an illusion of good health. A research by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) showed that only an alarmingly low five percent of British children in the 6-15 age-group count cricket in their top-two favourite sports. The number of cricketers registered in England fell from 428,000 in 2008 to 278,000 in 2016. Tens of small clubs face closure. It was the decline in the popularity of Test cricket that led to the creation of T20 cricket in England; a new creation is the 200-balls matches, with each team playing 100 balls. The idea is to attract youngsters to the sport. ECB hopes that England’s first World Cup win — in what is, perhaps rightly, being hailed as the greatest ODI of all time — would bring the youngsters in. That’s why beaming the final on the free-to-air Channel 4 TV is being termed a masterstroke. ECB is proud that during the course of the World Cup, it managed to get more than one million children in the age-group 5-12 involved in cricket. The trick is to keep them in cricket. Will England be able to do it? Time will tell. 

Numbers game

4TH Most popular sport — cricket (as per TV figures) of the country after football, rugby and tennis

9.6 Million viewers for Wimbledon men’s final on BBC 1; England’s win in the cricket World Cup final over New Zealand was watched by a peak viewership of 7.9 million on Channel 4 plus Sky. If the cricket final had not been shown on the free-to-air Channel 4 and only on the rights-holder Sky TV, the peak viewership of the cricket final could have been only 3.5 million

11.7 Million viewers for the women’s World Cup semifinal between England and the USA with an average viewership of 10.3 million

26.5 Million viewers watched the England vs Croatia match during the 2018 FIFA World Cup — roughly 40 per cent of the whole of the United Kingdom 

5 Per cent of British children in the 6-15 age-group count cricket in their top-two favourite sports. The number of cricketers registered in England fell from 428,000 in 2008 to 278,000 in 2016 

1 Million children in the age-group 5-12 involved in cricket during the course of the World Cup, ECB claims

The final was not just cricket at its best but sport at its best — courage, character, sportsmanship, drama, incredible skill and even the odd slice of luck— all combining to create a real thriller, one of the great sporting spectacles of our time. It was a fitting end to what has been a great tournament — and I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in once again making our country a sporting showcase for the world  Theresa May, Britain PM