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Howard feeds his addiction
By Will 2 years ago, at the start of April, 5 Comments »
Ah, John Howard. Rarely does a week go by, seemingly, in which “cricket” isn’t uttered by the self-confessed addict. And yesterday it was revealed he spent AUD$90,000 during his time in London last year to go to the cricket. Now, Australian readers will grab the Corridor shaped voodoo doll when I say this, but sod it: it must be brilliant to have a PM that loves cricket.
Ours - for all his good points - doesn’t like the game. Ha! Actually, he does like it, but the New Labour dictatorship, brewed in 1997 and currently resting in a Tuppawear container in Gordon Brown’s apartment above Number 10, decided football was far too cool to ignore. And so it was that our Tony chose the “beautiful” game over the five-day drinkathon, otherwise known as cricket.
I thought I’d mentioned this before, that Tony was a closet-cricket fan, but alas couldn’t find it.
Anyway, have a look at Johnnie Howard’s expenses:
JOHN Howard and his entourage spent more than $90,000 on accommodation and meals in a four-night stay at one of London’s most exclusive hotels.
The visit last July, which included two visits to Lord’s for the Ashes Test cricket series, was part of a 10-day trip in which the Prime Minister visited his fellow Iraq war leaders, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the US President, George W.Bush.Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws show the trip cost taxpayers $613,947.57, or $61,314 a day.
5 Comments »
Grass roots funding
By Will 2 years ago, mid-February, No Comments; be the first!
I confess to being mildly ignorant to the figures afforded (if that’s the appropriate word) to English cricket, and sport’s governing bodies worldwide, so these published from the government made interesting reading.
Kate Hoey questioned Richard Caborn:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much each sports national governing body (NGB) has received from the community club development programme in each of the last three years; and how much NGBs have allocated to
grass-roots sports development under the terms of the compact with her
Department on income from broadcasting in each year.
And he replied:
There is a "community club development programme" which provides funding for sport in Britain, and here are the figures since 2003:
| £ | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| NGB | Year 1 (2003–04) | Year 2 (2004–05) | Year 3 (to date) (2005–06) |
| All England Netball Association | 436,500 | 222,665 | 781,547 |
| Amateur Rowing Association | 1,657,056 | 199,445 | 436,510 |
| Amateur Swimming Association | 0 | 6,720 | 763,502 |
| Badminton England | 134,227 | 666,644 | 448,389 |
| British Canoe Union | 519,500 | 635,431 | 645,985 |
| British Cycling | 588,136 | 216,389 | 598,630 |
| British Gymnastics Association | 60,076 | 690,000 | 645,110 |
| British Judo Association | 45,625 | 329,694 | 1,236,712 |
| England Basketball | 205,809 | 110,000 | 597,442 |
| English Cricket Board | 2,996,330 | 1,592,513 | 2,233,388 |
| England Hockey | 185,000 | 248,800 | 623,308 |
| English Table Tennis Association | 14,777 | 31,485 | 1,446,738 |
| Football Association | 6,706,197 | 2,236,017 | 678,816 |
| Lawn Tennis Association | 4,413,234 | 2,394,918 | 1,610,800 |
| Rugby Football League | 38,188 | 260,591 | 994,598 |
| Rugby Football Union | 7,442,027 | 1,772,009 | 1,141,316 |
I don’t quite understand why or how the figures plummet for some sports, notably the Football Association (FA). Over £6m in year one, down to £678,816 in the third year. If anyone can offer an explanation, please do…
No Comments »Lottery, Euromillions
By Will 2 years ago, mid-January, 3 Comments »
Nothing to do with cricket, this, but I got a text this morning from a friend who told me Euro Millions’ jackpot has now reached £70m. SEVENTY MILLION MOOLARS. What in the name of all that is sane would you, dear reader, do with that much money? Naturally, I’m convinced tomorrow morning I’ll wake up a multi-millionaire - I’ve bought a ticket, in case that wasn’t abundantly clear - and have oodles of ideas as to what I’d do with it. Despite living in London, I’d almost certainly buy two cars, and use neither of them; a Cooper (JCW, the lot) and either a DB9 or a well-conditioned Jenson Interceptor.
Then I’d buy a few flats in London, start one of the dozens of ventures I keep promising myself I’ll do but, frankly, I think I’d still work. I’d get bored otherwise. I’d probably pile a large amount into a cricketing-based project, perhaps a new ground or something ridiculous like that.
And you?
3 Comments »MOD defend mass widescreen TV purchases
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of November, 4 Comments »
The Ministry of Defence have defended the mass purchase of widescreen TVs in recent years, after claims they were used for viewing Test match cricket. Norman Lamb, Lib Dem MP for Norfolk, got things going on November 21:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many widescreen televisions have been purchased by his Department for use in Whitehall Headquarters in each of the last five years; and at what cost in each year. [21097]
Adam Ingram (Minister of State (Armed Forces), Ministry of Defence) responded:
Mr. Ingram: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, as part of the Ministry of Defence Head Office building refurbishment, five widescreen televisions were purchased in financial year 2001–02 at a total cost of £12,500, and 134 at a total cost of £348,000 in financial year 2003–04.
£348,000 for a bunch of massive TVs in which to watch 11 England cricketers muck around on a pitch for a few days? Brilliant - at least it’s not football…good to see our taxes are being well spent. The BBC has more on this:
4 Comments »Mr Lamb told the BBC: “I was attending a meeting at the Ministry of Defence and I was walking through their open plan offices.
“I was completely gobsmacked by the number of televisions all around, in every work space.
“And they weren’t modest little things like we have here in the Houses of Parliament, with small screens. They were whopping great flat screen, wide screen sets.
I’m rich. Or, I could be…
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of October, 9 Comments »
My blog is worth $46,856.82 (£26,411.47).
How much is your blog worth?
Yes, I know it’s artificial, but anyone who discredits or underestimates the value (monetarily and as a medium) of blogs need only look at what AOL paid for Weblogs Inc. $25-40m. I shudder to think the affects blogs will have on traditional media - it’s exciting. A humble cricket blog isn’t going to shake things up, but it’s fun to be apart of blogging in the “early days” (although some would say blogging has been around for years and years. It has, but it’s never been this easy.) It’s this blog’s first Birthday in a week or so…
9 Comments »Earnings for international cricketers
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of January, No Comments; be the first!
I was interested to read of the England cricketer Andrew Strauss’ reputed earnings. Feb 2004 he was a county captain earning £80,000; now, though, that figure has been quadrupled. I’ve read elsewhere that Andrew Flintoff is thought to earn close to £1m/annum.
These are tiny figures compared to footballers but they seem excellent in cricket terms.
I’d be really interested to hear from others about their respective countries. I know there are Indian, NZ, West Indian and Australian readers lurking…so cough up and let me know! Oh God - under an hour until 2005…
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