 and usually serve to give England a consolation prize to play for at the end of another hiding in Australia. This series offers none of those benefits. England picked a 'C' team on Thursday. David Warner and Steve Smith probably had to do more homework than usual when faced with an England attack of Olly Stone, Luke Wood, David Willey, Chris Jordan (playing his first ODI for two years) and Liam Dawson. England's focus is on the Pakistan Test tour. It is like the teacher sticking on a film as the class winds down to the end of term. There is a little more interest for Australia as they regroup under new ODI skipper Pat Cummins but that is still a pretty hard sell to a public with so many options for its leisure time and a full diet of cricket still to come. England, and other countries, are shifting their priorities away from these bilateral tournaments. Test matches and global competitions are what matter. England will not care if they pick a 'B' or 'C' team in their bilateral series at home next summer against New Zealand and Ireland. The ECB do not care either. Those two series are tacked on to chilly September, the Hundred eating up August of course. But the fans should be compensated. Charging up to £100 for a ticket for an ODI when England pick their reserves is pretty hard to justify, especially in difficult times for everyone. It could be fans will vote with their feet.){kind=link}
Nobody wanted this irrelevant series and things could be about to get worse
It is hard to think of a more irrelevant match between England and Australia than Thursday’s one-day international at the Adelaide Oval played in front of swathes of empty seats.
The fact a final crowd of 15,400 in a stadium with a capacity of 53,500 was better than expected sums up the pointlessness of it all.
This three match series nobody wants to watch or play in threatens to erode the status of England-Australia cricket matches, one of the greatest rivalries in sport.
Australia-England ODIs at the Adelaide Oval can be spectacular occasions. They are usually played on Jan 26 – Australia Day – when the weather is hot, everyone is off work and children on school holidays. But now? In November? Straight after a World Cup in which Adelaide hosted a lot of games successfully? No wonder punters are tired and saving their money.