Wellington: Over the past decade or more, Australian cricket’s leaders have bet most of their figurative chips on the health of Test matches.

As far as marketing and promotion goes, the five-day game has been at the top of the tree since 1993. That’s when the then Australian Cricket Board escaped a one-sided broadcast deal with Kerry Packer and went on to make a largely successful commitment to fill grounds and build TV audiences for Tests.

Test cricket is the only form of the game that truly captures the attention of the nation.Credit: Getty Images

In 2011, the Argus team performance review focused the national system very much upon identifying Test cricket as the game’s pinnacle. Non-World Cup white-ball series were more or less relegated to research and development.

That change was followed in 2018 by the decision to sell broadcast rights to Seven and Foxtel for $1.2 billion. Those same white-ball games were pushed behind a paywall and big audiences directed towards Tests and the Big Bash League.

On one level, these decisions have reaped Cricket Australia and the states a succession of big broadcast rights windfalls, helmed primarily by its departing head of broadcast and commercial, Stephanie Beltrame. That ground was hung onto in the wake of COVID-19 by a consolidating, $1.5 billion deal with Seven and Fox last year.

They have also helped the men’s team rise to the top of the international standings with some panache. Pat Cummins’ team holds the World Championship and bilateral trophies against every opponent other than India, who are due to tour next summer.

But they mean that Test cricket’s global health has never been more important to Australian cricket than it is in 2024.

This has been underlined by contrasting crowds for bilateral white-ball games either side of the Tasman in recent weeks. A paltry 16,342 spectators turned up to the MCG for an ODI against the West Indies earlier this month, following on from a mere 10,406 filing in to see another 50-over game against England in November 2022.