Quote:
Originally Posted by Badminton
I'm also surprised at how good of a commentator/ pundit Shane Warne is, most of the sky team is good, Ian Botham running on reputation however.
Shane Warne is probably the one sportsperson in the world I would most like to have half a dozen beers with. The bloke swings from complete legend, to complete imbicile at times, and his entire life-story is/would/does make a fascinating read. From the hookers to the bribery with Salim Malik, the ciggie during a test, what an absolute legend. Childhood hero growing up along with Mark Waugh, and shaking his hand and getting his autograph when I was 11 at a local Test was probably my favourite sportsperson meeting of all time.
He does a lot of work for channel 9 over here during Test Match coverage. He is a bit more clued to the modern generation then the older commentators, such as Lawry, Chappell, Greig and Benaud, a bit more appealing then O'Donnell and Taylor, and just smarter then the more recent retirees doing 9 commentary, such as Slater and Healy. Only Foxtels Brenden Julien IMO is as good.
About an in depth look at the local Australian game, anyway, Im sick and stuck at home so here goes...
Australia's main domestic scene is mainly based around the 6 states (New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania). There was a small flirting with including the Australian Captial Territory (ACT) but that ended after a few years in the domestic 50 over comp.
These states play in 3 local competitions, the Sheffield Shield, which is a double round robin of 4 day games, with a 5 day final. Each state is generally allowed one player per game from overseas to play (In WA, my state, recent overseas players for the 4-day comp include Murray Goodwin and Sean Ervine, both Zimbabwean internationals) In a nutshell, the tournament is great in terms of developing local players for the Test game. However, because of the greater focus on the shorter versions of the game, this tournament is getting overlooked sadly. Talks of reducing the games are always around, and its a shame, because the long term effects of having this competitions is far outweighed by the costs (Australia is a big country) and the lack of social interest. I really dont want this to happen because of the history of the Sheffield Shield, and I already to an extent hate the commercialism attached to it (The competition went a number of years around 8 years ago of being called the Pura Milk Cup, which pissed of the traditionals, since then, its reverted back to the Shield, but Weet-Bix sponsorships and player names and numbers have adorned the creams as far as I have seen...
The next competition that came around in the 70's was obviously the limited overs comp. When I started paying attention properly, around 97 or so when I was 9ish, it was a single round robin competition, with a knockout for the top 4. It expanded around 2000 to a double round robin with a final between 1 and 2. The problem with this competition as well as the Shield, is that it is mixed together during the season. While I guess this saves costs (Queensland travel to WA for a 4 day game Sun-Wed and a Friday night D/N one day match) it obviously effects the players having to adjust to the varying competitions. This competition is also losing relevance to the sporting public for the same reasons that 50 over cricket is losing relevance, that being the 20/20 comp.
The Big Bash is has been running for around 5 years now and has expanded from 2 pools of 3, one home game each and a final, to a single round robin with finals series of two games (2 v 3 for the right to play 1). Many discussions have been had to expand the competition, but I think it is okay for now. Its run in one block for around 5 weeks or so. Its good in general, and some big stars come over to play it like a mini IPL, such as Vettori for Qld, Chris Gayle for WA and Pollard for SA.
My main issue isnt the structure of the competitions in Australia. The unfortunate fact is, with the growing global nature of sport, and the fact that I have access to all these 20/20 games in the IPL, English 20/20 and the various World 20's that have been held in recent times, is that domestic sport is fast becoming irrelevant. As such, the top dogs are going to over-hype the Big Bash (The only non-top level cricket that gets any crowds or real media attention) This is going to kill the domestic game the same way the 50-over comp nearly killed the Shield for a while...
How to combat this, well, I dont really know. I think provided that Cricket Australia is keeping money aside to run the Shield at a loss thats okay. But unfortuantely, I can see them reducing the competition which would suck balls. They are going to overload, and kill as a novelty 20/20, and after that Im not sure exactly where cricket is going to go in some of the smaller cricketing areas such as New Zealand and Australia, where the sporting market is so over-satured with somewhat bandwagon fans jumping from one train to the next. Its was footy for a while when the Sydney Swans and Brisbane teams did well, soccer/football when we made the last 16 of the World Cup and when my team signed Robbie Fowler, our attendence for the first game, usually an average of 9k, was 16k. Aussies generally love a bandwagon, and its going to be tought to see how we can jump back on cricket.
The Ashes will certainly help. It will get big crowds for almost all the matches, but its just such a shame the next time when say, New Zealand and Bangladesh tour we just arent going to really give a ****...