Australian cricket’s new-look one-day domestic competition ended with a bang with 221,695 fans (across metro and regional markets) tuning in to see the Queensland Bulls win the RYOBI One Day Cup at North Sydney Oval on Sunday.
Australian domestic limited-overs cricket tournament (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The competition’s return to free-to-air television on the Nine Network averaged 105,515 viewers per match across the combined metro and regional markets, double last year’s RYOBI Cup average viewership of 52,779, according to Oztam.
The RYOBI One Day Cup has provided a strong start to the Australian season, despite receiving criticism from players regarding scheduling, and has earmarked a number of players as ones to watch over the summer.
Cricket Australia (CA) Executive General Manager – Team Performance Pat Howard said: “The RYOBI One Day Cup has produced a number of positive performances for the National Selection Panel to consider. Combined with Australia’s current Tour to India, we have seen many Australian cricketers put their case forward strongly.
“The selectors have been really pleased with the performances heading into the Ashes and players will now need to maximize their performances in red ball cricket with the start of the Bupa Sheffield Shield tomorrow, as well as Australia A’s tour match against England in Hobart next week.
“The RYOBI One Day Cup has provided an ideal preparation ahead of the 2015 Cricket World Cup and attention now turns to players capitalizing on this form in the longer format,” Howard said.
CA National Selector John Inverarity said: “The National Selection Panel has watched with great interest the RYOBI One Day Cup and Australia’s current Tour of India and saw many outstanding performances.
“Pleasingly we have seen big scores from a number of batsman with the white-ball, as we narrow our focus to the 2015 Cricket World Cup and prepare a team that will challenge for tournament honours.
“Many bowlers, also, are pushing for selection in the national side. This competition for places bodes well for the upcoming Cricket World Cup, as well as our summer of cricket across all three formats,” Inverarity said.
Sunday’s final averaged 221,695 (across metro and regional markets) viewers as the Bulls defeated the NSW Blues for its second straight RYOBI Cup title. The match recorded the highest reach of the competition, reaching more than 578k people in the metro markets and an additional 497k in regional markets.
CA Executive General Manager – Media, Communications and Marketing Ben Amarfio said: “To have over 221,000 viewers tune in on GEM on Sunday and to double last year’s average TV viewing numbers to over 100,000 per match, especially considering all matches were not played in primetime, is a terrific result.
“The RYOBI Cup has got the domestic summer off to a great start with a string of exciting matches and great performances. We’re extremely happy with the strong viewer numbers and fan support, particularly on cricket.com.au through our RYOBI Cup live stream.”
The RYOBI One Day Cup has set the scene for a gripping summer of cricket with attention now shifting to red ball cricket with the first round of the Bupa Sheffield Shield this Wednesday. The Shield season starts this Wednesday with matches in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne, while the Australia A squad assembles in Hobart next week for their match against England starting 6 November.
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James Buttler
As the editor of World Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
He is also the presenter of the Cricket Badger Radio Show on Radio Yorkshire every Tuesday evening between 7-9pm UK time.
James was the full-time Media Manager at Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 2007 and 2010.
James is a published author, a writer/video contributor to many cricket publications and a complete cricket badger!
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