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Three cheers for partisan cricket blogging

By Scott last year, at the start of October Leave a comment on this post

There’s an interesting debate going on in Will’s India photo thread, which is well worth a read. In it, Will made a point that I’m as partisan as it gets when it comes to my blogging.

And I make no apologies for being an Australian cheerleader. I’ve been very lucky over the last fifteen years or so to see some extraordinary performances by the Australian cricket team, and they deserve to be celebrated. Moreover, every cricket fan has the right to cheer on their team.

But as a blogger, writing to an international readership, I think it is also important to be honest, and call it as I see it- and applaud good play from where-ever it may come. And also, when teams play badly, you have to be honest about that as well. So there is a balance to be sought. It is different to what happens with newspaper or radio broadcasts, which are aimed at one particular national audience. - for example, Simon Briggs wrote a match report about the England vs Sri Lanka ODI- dwelling more on England’s failings then Sri Lanka’s excellence. That is natural- he’s writing for an English paper after all.

Do we succeed here at the Corridor in striking the right balance? I’d like to think we do, but ultimately that is up to the reader to decide.

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8 Responses to “Three cheers for partisan cricket blogging”

  • Fiona wrote:
    October 2nd, 2007 at 3.44 am

    You may be partisan but it tends to be in a positive way, not just winding people up in a negative for the sake of “debate”.

    The best thing I like about this blog is that it’s not too self-important. I haven’t looked at al lot of sites, but this one seems to have a sense of humour, and a light touch of irony. It’s not too long-winded like Cricinfo, too big like 606, which can also get nasty; Line and Length can be a bit quirky, (or is it just the commentators?); and King Cricket is too idiosyncratic (the “we” reminds me of sportsmen referring to themselves in the 3rd person, but in reverse) .

    And here comments are posted immediately. There’s nothing worse than having a rant then it not being appearing for 12 hours, by which time you and discussion have moved on!

  • pod wrote:
    October 2nd, 2007 at 4.04 am

    I think this blog manages to strike the best balance. There are plenty of snipes taken at one another, but I’d like to think it’s all in good humour… and besides, I haven’t seen things get nasty here ever…

    In my opinion, a blog and its content should provoke.. even if that means hitting below the belt sometimes!! hehe… the fun lies in trading arguments back and forth, and as fiona has said in the earlier comment, the comments being posted immediately is a great thing…

    the best cricket blog on the web, in my opinion… keep up the great work, guys!

  • Will wrote:
    October 2nd, 2007 at 4.12 pm

    Marvellous. More praise, please. Our egos can take it.

  • pseudoKu wrote:
    October 2nd, 2007 at 7.12 pm

    Ditto Fiona… This is in fact the only blog that I have in my RSS feeds

    (which btw might be the reason why the pages take a hella long time to load?? had this complaint from anyone else?)

  • JII wrote:
    October 3rd, 2007 at 5.58 am

    I hate Will!! I hate Will!! I hate Will!!

    Will, is that enuff praise? :-)

    Jokes apart, I like the views shared here, like the people sharing their views and all that is in good humour. As for being partisan, as long as we stay within the limits, that adds to the fun.

  • Uncle j rod wrote:
    October 3rd, 2007 at 2.02 pm

    I think its important to be non biased.

    Thats why i support leg spinners and chubby wicket keepers the world over.

  • Alex wrote:
    October 3rd, 2007 at 4.21 pm

    in the meanwhile, while u were basking in self indulgent glory, that poor misunderstood lad has been drawing flak again. i mean the world is ganging up against him, cant he eyeball, cant he give a verbal send off. cant he attempt to run out a batsman who wanders away from his crease, what was symonds doing walking upto him anyway, cant he stay in his crease, i mean what is he, lord and protector of innocent batsmen who are tormented by the stares of the devilish sreesanth. murali gets run out if he walks to congratulate the other batsman on his century. a batsman should know where his crease ends, or is symonds entitled to his own rules and regulations like he is entitled to his opinions.
    the good thing about sreesanth is that he will start a fight, he will not wait to be instigated. its sad that the indian media dont support him in his hour of need. he has so succesfully spoiled many a happiness. the australian spend more ink about his spoiled nature than australia getting back to their winning ways.

  • Zainub wrote:
    October 3rd, 2007 at 8.30 pm

    I think you do about alright. When I was blogging regularly about cricket, I kind of had the same dilemma. You had to be objective and give the other side credit, but you couldn’t help but think at the same time how horribly your own side played. But with time, as one blogs more and more, they do figure out how to strike the balance, and lets be honest, if there’s some thing worthy enough of being appreciated, it normally catches our attention above the boundaries of “support” for a certain team. You don’t have to convince your self to blog about it, it just comes to you naturally. Or at least, that’s what happened with me.


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