Cricket Australia dismisses concern over low turn out for ODI series

MELBOURNE - Dismissing concerns over poor crowd turn out for one-day series against Sri Lanka, Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has maintained that one-day cricket was far from dead and still remains most popular among the fans.

Not more than 14,000 fans decided to watch the second ODI between Australian and Sri Lanka at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

It was only the third time in the past 20 years that the attendance had dropped below 20,000 for an ODI in Sydney.

“I think there are some trends there in respect to one-day cricket, but at the same time we’ve done a major review of one-day cricket in the past 12 months and it comes back clearly as the No.1 format of the game in terms of popularity amongst fans,” Sutherland said.

“The challenge for us is balancing Tests, one-day cricket and Twenty20 (cricket),” The Daily Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

“But we’ve got confidence in one-day cricket and as the season progresses there will be very few questions about it because when we play England it will be a different story to playing Sri Lanka in early November,” Sutherland said. (ANI)