As the Ashes loom, a report reveals Australian cricket is in crisis

England have arrived in Perth for the Ashes tour to find Australian cricket agonising over its biggest crisis for a generation. Uncertainty is not a characteristic normally associated with Australian cricket, but that is very much the state of mind as they contemplate a declining interest among teenage cricketers, a collapse in television audiences and worsening finances. Australia, which has long taken pride in the tough, dedicated attitudes of its young cricketers, has now reluctantly conceded that the rival appeal of the internet, and other more passive activities, have put their endless production line at risk. While England's captain, Andrew Strauss, calls on his players to be "ready for war", Australia are skulking in their tent in a prolonged bout of navel-gazing with their concerns stretching far deeper than the future of their captain Ricky Ponting. Cricket Australia's fears were outlined in a week-long conference before 180 stakeholders. The discussion document, which was revealed in Melbourne's Sunday Age, was a picture of gloom as delegates wrestled with the notion that in Australia, cricket was just not trendy anymore. Most disturbing for Australia is the decline in cricket interest among 13 to 18-year-olds as they become increasingly resistant to the demands in many clubs — which have long been much tougher than in England — of compulsory nets several evenings a week and long matches at the weekend. From an English perspective, the suspicion is that Australia is suffering the same social changes that affected England more than a decade ago. The England and Wales Cricket Board, supported by such vital initiatives as Chance to Shine, put greater emphasis on investment in youth and recreational cricket, while Twenty20 was introduced in the face of great suspicion and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been enthusiastically adopted. Australia, which was initially hostile towards Twenty20, is belatedly making a similar move. Its own Twenty20 league — the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash — has been expanded from six to eight teams from next year and will be based around city franchises, a solution that the ECB has resisted in England as unnecessary. Fears about finances have undermined Australia's fierce independence. They expect to lose money in the next three years and that has led to a growing emphasis on how they can best take advantage of the riches in Indian cricket. A competitive Ashes series is just what Australia needs. The same is true of national broadcaster Channel 9 which might give a picture of stability and confidence with its familiar roster of commentators but which is troubled by a 24% fall in audience figures in the last 10 years. Those viewing figures could look a whole lot brighter by the new year.