Media reaction - Australia's decision to scrap/postpone Test series against Bangladesh

[Miraz]

An interesting read from The Age. The last line hurts, but probably true in an world where commercial value determines the importance of any event/sport.

Pulling the plug on fair go for all

Chloe Saltau



February 14, 2008

INDIA is often accused of abusing its power to suit its ends, but Australia has been equally culpable in manipulating the international program this week.
As Australian players prepared to auction themselves off like paintings to share in the riches of the Indian Premier League, and the national team's tour of volatile Pakistan hung in the balance, it could easily have escaped attention that two Test matches against Bangladesh that were written into the Future Tours Program, the blueprint that is supposed to make the cricket world go around, effectively slid off the face of the earth, or at least were postponed until Ricky Ponting's team next comes up for air some time in 2010.
The reason? A clash with the Beijing Olympics. Cricket Australia said it wouldn't dream of putting its cricketers up against the Games, so instead Darwin will host three one-day games that will serve as a training camp of sorts for the Champions Trophy in September.
Australia, as the world champion and the leading Test and one-day nation, also regards itself as a leader in promoting the development of smaller cricketing nations. It hosts emerging players from overseas at its Centre of Excellence in Brisbane and hosts minnow cricket countries such as Bangladesh, despite the fact such series incur a six-figure loss for Cricket Australia. Except when the Olympics are on.
This is as outrageous as it sounds. Broadcast partner the Nine Network would not have been prepared to screen the home Test series in competition with the Seven Network, the Olympics rights-holder. Cricket Australia insists this is not the reason the Tests were postponed, but clearly the days of cricket being played for its own sake are gone.
While Bangladesh begrudgingly accepts the change to the program because "we are all Test-playing nations (and) we all have to look after each other", the Board of Control for Cricket in India says it would like to play Australia more often.
"I had a discussion with CA CEO James Sutherland. Both of us have recognised that the India-Australia series should be played frequently," Indian board secretary Niranjan Shah told The Hindu newspaper. "It will bring a new dimension to India-Australia cricket and it will also become a big commercial success." Some Test-playing nations are more equal than others.
It is perfectly understandable that players would seek to maximise their earning power in the IPL, and they should not go to Pakistan if it is not safe, but if cricket is scheduled primarily for commercial reasons then there will be little reason to play anyone except India and England.
Cricket newcomer the Ten Network, meanwhile, has leapt at the chance to join the Twenty20 boom by reportedly spending between $10-$15 million on the Australian IPL rights for five years, and the International Cricket Council and its members are under pressure to find a stand-alone spot in the program for it. This would make the rest of the schedule even more crowded, but there is evidently more interest in watching Mumbai versus Bangalore in a Twenty20 clash than Australia and Bangladesh in a Test, anyway.



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[Tigers_eye]

We all know what we need to do in order to get tours in other countries. Raise our own standard. Hopefully we start with SA.

At least we will tour for 3 ODIs. When will Asia cup be held? 3 ODIs also.

[sharifk]

[QUOTE=Miraz;620304]An interesting read from The Age. The last line hurts, but probably true in an world where commercial value determines the importance of any event/sport.

This would make the rest of the schedule even more crowded, but there is evidently more interest in watching Mumbai versus Bangalore in a Twenty20 clash than Australia and Bangladesh in a Test, anyway.

QUOTE]

I would highly doubt on any of such notion. Why? Simply because of the popularity of cricket in BD. Now what’s the population in BD? How many of them will be watching our national team playing against Australia? Do we not remember the commercial success of under-19 WC in BD? Every game had a stadium full of audience. I know we are talking about the series in Australia, but if we are still talking about the total number of people watching world wide, the fans of BD can’t be discounted.

What is not surprising anymore but extremely difficult to accept that our Bengali geniuses like Miraz can easily buy in to this type of false rhetoric so easily. No wonder why our 150 million people are sold so cheaply to the world. One of the reason Indians are getting billions (although probably highly overpriced) of dollars for their cricket because they have learned how to sell their billion people for even an unproven rivalry/popularity of Twenty20 game between Mumbai and Bangalore to the world media. We don’t yet know how many will be watching any of such games, but the world media has bought the idea that that will generate more audience than of a game involving BD national team. But we don’t have to accept this without challenging. Otherwise, we will always be underpriced. We don’t have to argue about the quality of our games because that’s a different discussion, and it’s not the quality that’s bringing dollar to Indian cricket, it’s their population. So let’s just start getting money for our population, shall we?

[sandpiper]

Does anyone outside India care about the 20-20 match between mumbai and bangalore ?

[Tigers_eye]

Can't agree with you Sharifk to some extent. (indian T20 games.)

Media outlets, sponsors feed the rest of the world what they would want all of us to see. Taking the best players from the world automatically gets peoples' attention. Even though I dislike T20 I may watch some of the matches.

As for population, how many total would want to watch BD at Aus? Even in BD there wouldn't be much. Waking up early just to watch the bashing wouldn't be the norm. This is no false rhetoric for sure.

And selling cheaply comment is only meant for BD not Indians because we are corrupt to our bones. Our political system is useless. We put ourselves first than the nation.

[sharifk]

T_E, I can see your points. But still the success of IPL is still unproven. My main point is that we are all accepting and supporting some ideas based on assumptions that haven't been proven, and all that in the price of our national team not getting enough (may happen in the future) matches. Before we can start selling our own assumptions (which I think we should) , we need to start making and believing in such assumtions that our 150 million people can generate dollars too.

[Miraz]

Originally Posted by sharifk
What is not surprising anymore but extremely difficult to accept that our Bengali geniuses like Miraz can easily buy in to this type of false rhetoric so easily. No wonder why our 150 million people are sold so cheaply to the world. One of the reason Indians are getting billions (although probably highly overpriced) of dollars for their cricket because they have learned how to sell their billion people for even an unproven rivalry/popularity of Twenty20 game between Mumbai and Bangalore to the world media. We don’t yet know how many will be watching any of such games, but the world media has bought the idea that that will generate more audience than of a game involving BD national team. But we don’t have to accept this without challenging. Otherwise, we will always be underpriced. We don’t have to argue about the quality of our games because that’s a different discussion, and it’s not the quality that’s bringing dollar to Indian cricket, it’s their population. So let’s just start getting money for our population, shall we?

Dhire... bro...dhire...

I am not in complete agreement with the statement, what I have pointed is "the commercial interest of a quarter is dominating over the spirit of the game". As India is generating the main revenue of cricket and IPL created a commercial mania, it is getting priority over the international fixtures.

You have to analyze the statement with the context of the article, it's not an independent statement. The article relates the commercial interest of IPL and a Mumbai vs Bangalore match featuring superstar cricketers. The author believes it will defnitely enjoy more audience and more commercial success compared to a below par Bangladesh vs Australia Test match and I can't simply ignore him.

A domestic Mumbai vs Bangalore match is something different, hardly anyone takes interest in the Ronjy trophy match featuring these state teams.

IPL is something different altogether and it's creating a stir in the cricket world. even some cricketers are ready to take early retirement from international cricket to participate in the IPL.

[sharifk]

Miraz, yes, "it's creating stir in the cricket world" and I believe that we as a member of the world cricket must analyze the impact of it as we are at the cross road. This is even more important when the international games are effected by it. The point to remember is that if the whole idea is successful and can generate so much revenue based on the population base, any notion that our large population can't generate dollar or can't generate audience has to be challenged.

[Miraz]

Originally Posted by sharifk
Miraz, yes, "it's creating stir in the cricket world" and I believe that we as a member of the world cricket must analyze the impact of it as we are at the cross road. This is even more important when the international games are effected by it. The point to remember is that if the whole idea is successful and can generate so much revenue based on the population base, any notion that our large population can't generate dollar or can't generate audience has to be challenged.

I agree with your core points, but reality seems to be something different.

When our boys are not performing well and a full series against a team like South Africa can't even generate 0.2 million dollar sponsorship, it's really difficult to anticipate our commercial muscle to combat against lure of the billion dollar cricket revenue market.

[Game On]

Originally Posted by sandpiper
Does anyone outside India care about the 20-20 match between mumbai and bangalore ?

They do caz Channel 10 of Australia bought the rights to telecast all the matches live for next 5 years ;

Now Australian cares as well .

[Ajfar]

performance speaks for itself..unless we can do something in the fieldd...it wn't makee any differencee..

[RazabQ]

hmm miraz - u missed this in the aussie itinerary confirmed thread

[Rabz]

Originally Posted by Tigers_eye
We all know what we need to do in order to get tours in other countries. Raise our own standard. Hopefully we start with SA.

I think this sums it up.

[sandpiper]

Commercial interest might make those 20-20's look interesting, but it wont have the usual flavor of cricket. Cricket is not football that you pick up players from different countries and can instill a team spirit on the name of Mumbai or Hyderabad. This is ludicrous to me. I dont know which way the world cricket is leading towards now , but if the 20-20 becomes the flagship version of cricket, I would lose my interest on cricket for sure.

period

[dash]

Originally Posted by sandpiper
Commercial interest might make those 20-20's look interesting, but it wont have the usual flavor of cricket. Cricket is not football that you pick up players from different countries and can instill a team spirit on the name of Mumbai or Hyderabad. This is ludicrous to me. I dont know which way the world cricket is leading towards now , but if the 20-20 becomes the flagship version of cricket, I would lose my interest on cricket for sure.

period

im sorry to say. money talks nd thats where we r heading

[sharifk]

Originally Posted by dash
im sorry to say. money talks nd thats where we r heading

This is a problematic statement in my view….without going into too much details here are some points to think about….Twenty20 is not the most popular form of cricket nor Mumbai or Delhi are the richest cities of all cricket playing cities. …Twenty20 isn’t something invented in India either…So the whole idea of going where the money is very naïve way to look at the situation in opinion….the way I look at it is, it’s simply trying to bring in money by the name of large population base who may or may not have the capacity to buy it all…..and we also have a large population base…so we don’t need to give in entirely to such rhetoric that a game such of Twenty20 can bring in more than what our national team can…Only if we try to..

[LateCut]

Originally Posted by Miraz
This would make the rest of the schedule even more crowded, but there is evidently more interest in watching Mumbai versus Bangalore in a Twenty20 clash than Australia and Bangladesh in a Test, anyway.

Come now? As far as I know there is no tournamanent in India which pictches Mumbai against Bangalore in a 20/20 encounter. Even if there were one, it would be of interest to far smaller audience than any match between BD and another test playing nation. However, I have to agree that Australians will be less inclined to be glued to the tube to watch clash between the tigers and the Aussies. I am pondering about the fig leaf though! It must be a very very tiny one! Apparently, CA does not need a large one (like a bannana leaf). They did not want a clash with Beijing Olympic! Why not move the schedule up?

[Game On]

Originally Posted by sandpiper
Commercial interest might make those 20-20's look interesting, but it wont have the usual flavor of cricket. Cricket is not football that you pick up players from different countries and can instill a team spirit on the name of Mumbai or Hyderabad. This is ludicrous to me. I dont know which way the world cricket is leading towards now , but if the 20-20 becomes the flagship version of cricket, I would lose my interest on cricket for sure.

period

There won't be any 50/50 anymore after few years & noone cares about your interest caz so many new people would be interested as well

[kalpurush]

Originally Posted by sharifk

This would make the rest of the schedule even more crowded, but there is evidently more interest in watching Mumbai versus Bangalore in a Twenty20 clash than Australia and Bangladesh in a Test, anyway.

Stupid comparison by the writer. You can't compare Twenty/20 with Test...no way.
It's like comparing Bangla chutol gan with Nazrul giti!

[kalpurush]

Originally Posted by Game On
There won't be any 50/50 anymore after few years & noone cares about your interest caz so many new people would be interested as well

True, but sad. You should cry instead...

[Tintin]

In the 80s and 90s people were predicting that Test cricket was about to die because of ODIs. Tests are still alive and well and it is the ODIs that are now in trouble.

[One World]

Originally Posted by sandpiper
Cricket is not football that you pick up players from different countries and can instill a team spirit on the name of Mumbai or Hyderabad. ..but if the 20-20 becomes the flagship version of cricket, I would lose my interest on cricket for sure.

period

Unfortunately the new generation does not want to spend a whole day let alone 4-5 long days watch players battling with their mind and grit. The average age of spectators has been lowering since ICC introduced ODI's and now Stanford approach with a total 40 overs of fireworks it is going to become the standard and 20/20 might become the accepted affordable version for most non-associate countries. A growth of interest might swipe off the legacy. We better change our views cause I can see a science fiction in this Boimela where one robot is saying the other, "Homo Sapiens were so stupid they spent five days to find out who is better in one sport?"

That does not reduce my love for test cricket a bit either.

[Roni_uk]

Aussies are just a start, if we keep repeating our performance against IND/SL/NZ, all these big teams will start following Australian footsteps.

[Alien]

While lot of what the guy said made sense, his last line is an over exaggeration. There are 144 million people in BD who will tune in to the game while at most 10 million will tune in for that Mumbai vs whoever match.

[sharifk]

Originally Posted by Alien
While lot of what the guy said made sense, his last line is an over exaggeration. There are 144 million people in BD who will tune in to the game while at most 10 million will tune in for that Mumbai vs whoever match.

You've said it bro.