What a 24hrs of sport. Seriously, there was enough to keep you going all day and well into the night.
Right in the heart of football season we have AFL and NRL clashes taking a back seat to the biggest sporting show on the planet, ‘The World Cup’. The drama associated with each match in this tournament is unparalleled in world sport as entire nations stand transfixed over each contest.
Last night also signalled the start of another classic world renowned sporting contest, the ‘Tour de France’, with Aussie hopes firmly weighing on the shoulders of our current world road racing champion, Cadel Evans.
Both these events made it difficult for the Aussie sports fanatic to find any time to watch Serena Williams dominate another Grand Slam final and lock away her fourth Wimbledon title.
Then if you can believe it, sandwiched in amongst this buffet of delectable sporting treats was Game 5 of the 2010 Australia v England one day series.
What was that?
You didn’t know it was on?
Sorry, I misheard, you didn’t care it was on!
With all of the yawn, yawn one day and Twenty20 cricket that is played around the globe every year this series was perhaps the biggest YAWN of all.
It’s hard to know where to start about what is wrong with playing these types of ‘empty space’ fixtures, but let me have a try.
Firstly, it cheapens the game. Cricket is a semi-global sport that is loves by more than a billion people worldwide (thanks India), and One Day Cricket was once, arguably, the most popular form of the game.
Aussies loved their One-Dayers, with the Tri-series in Australia each summer drawing huge crowds both at venues and on tv. Fast forward to television coverage of international tours by pay tv and we began to feel that you could have too much of a good thing.
For a while there however, these one day games were packaged with a test tour in a form that maintained the credibility of the sport.
Now-days, the forever-loved summer tri-series is gone, Twenty20 cricket has stolen the one day audience and the new role for one-day cricket appears to be filling an ‘empty space’ in scheduling where there might be a buck to be made.
Next, it cheapens the jersey. Playing for Australia should be the pinnacle of any sports person’s career. Sadly, the shear volume of meaningless cricket played today means many talented second tier players, have international careers by virtue of injury and burnout rather than talent.
Finally, it cheapens the rivalry that is Australia v England. These are the contests that Aussie sports fans love more than any other, and cricket used to be the greatest example of this rivalry. We loved only getting to see Australia tackle the old enemy twice in four years. We loved how it is for the ‘Ashes’ one of the most unique trophies is world sport. We loved waiting to see who the Poms would pick to tackle our Aussie heroes.
Alas, with the Ashes less than 4 months away, this over exposure to ‘empty space’ cricket has already tarnished the contest that is to come.
So the time has come to wake up Cricket Australia and realise Aussie sports fans don’t care for empty space cricket. Be careful you don’t cheapen the game so much; we choose to buy something else instead.
Mondays Expert
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