Rather than playing a bunch of domestic cricket matches in empty capital city stadiums, we should take them on a regional tour where we might at least have a crowd bigger than just the commentators, writes Matthew Bevan.

Cricket's a funny game. Though it dominates the Australian sporting calendar in the summer months, generates hundreds of columns of newspaper print every year and fills cul-de-sacs and backyards around the nation, when it comes to the traditional Test and 50-over versions, people are pretty much only interested in the international game.

As a producer of talkback radio, I know the fury that can erupt whenever a flippant comment is made about the Rabbitohs, the Swans and even (or perhaps especially) the Western Sydney Wanderers. People love their local team and they don't like people questioning how they play ... no matter how knowledgeable they may be on the subject.

But you can pretty much say anything you like about Shield cricket. If you were to come on the radio and say "the Victorian Bushrangers have a big chance this year due to the great leadership of George Melville" most listeners wouldn't bat an eyelid, except maybe a few historians who may be able to point out that George Melville is the name of an actual bushranger. Like the stagecoach robbing type.

Did you know that Victoria is coming second in the 50-over Matador Cup competition this year? Did you know there's a Cricket Australia XI playing in the tournament against the states? Amazingly a 21-year-old by the name of Travis Head scored a swashbuckling 202 not out in a one-day match a couple of weeks ago, slogging 12 sixes. That's amazing, and yet I didn't hear about it.

You know why? Nobody was at the match. I've taken a few glances at the TV coverage of domestic matches over the last month, and there's no better way of finding out what some of Sydney's most beautiful stadiums look like when they're empty.

The entire 50-over domestic competition this year is being played in Sydney over a period of 20 days - the final is on this Sunday - I'm sure that's the cheapest possible way of getting through a competition that holds little interest in the age of the Big Bash, but it also means that nobody is seeing the games.

The only people I've seen at any of the matches are a few kids wagging school and heading down to North Sydney Oval.

When I was a kid in Newcastle, every few years a four-day Shield match would come to town. It was where I first saw Steve and Mark Waugh play - at Number 1 Sports Ground, in January 2003. Michael Clarke scored a century in the second innings and won man of the match. Thousands of people turned out for each day of the match. The crowd roared at every wicket, stood and applauded every century and groaned at every ball taken in the ribs.

Newcastle gets one of these games every few years. The whole town gets excited about it. I'm sure it makes a difference to the players too. Where's the fun of playing in an empty stadium?

Yet most of the time that's what domestic players do. Capital city crowds have plenty of international cricket to watch every year - a Test match at least for Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, and a bunch of One Day Internationals as well. Why would you bother to trek to the SCG, find a car park or walk from Central Station to watch first class cricket in an empty, echoing stadium when you could watch The Ashes just as easily? Not to mention the attraction the night-time, star-filled Big Bash matches holds over the comparative sluggishness of 50-over cricket.

A strong argument could be made to scrap domestic 50-over cricket altogether (I've occasionally argued for scrapping the international version as well), but as long as there is a 50-over Cricket World Cup and countries keen to play day-nighters, Australia needs to keep up a strong domestic competition in order to breed the stars of the future, like the aforementioned Travis Head, for example.

The result is that pretty much the only people watching these matches are the fielders, the batting team, the coaches, the family of anybody on debut and the commentators making notes so they can say "I think the next big thing at number three for Australia is Ben Somethingson from Tasmania" the next time the Test side has a batting collapse.

Marrara Oval, Darwin. Cazaly's Stadium, Cairns. Oakes Oval, Lismore. Lavington Sports Ground, Albury. Hands Oval, Bunbury. Queen Elizabeth II Oval, Bendigo. The NTCA Ground, Launceston. These are just some of the dozens of cricket grounds that have been used for first class cricket in the past that are now lucky to score a game every few years.

Instead of playing 23 games in 20 days in Sydney, why not take a little tour of regional centres? Hold the competition as a road trip through regional cities. It might cost a bit more than an intensive three-week Sydney competition, but you might at least have a crowd bigger than just the commentators.

Matthew Bevan is a producer for 702 ABC Sydney Mornings with Linda Mottram.