Poststv
« Previous EntriesCricket’s wealth in Australia
By Will 3 months ago, 3 Comments »
We talk and moan about India’s vast financial grip over the game, but however much it narks us, it is of little surprise: with a growing economy and a colossal population, the majority of whom love the game, India have the two crucial ingredients to making a lot of money out of an entertainment sport. The same goes for football in the UK: it’s watched and loved by millions, and advertisers know they’ll get decent exposure and are willing to pay for it.
The same can’t be said for cricket in the UK. After the Ashes, in particular the following summer, advertisers were swarming like bees over all things cricket. Even this humble blog was targeted. But the interest, like England’s Test form, has slipped away with depressing haste and we’re back to where we were pre the 2005 Ashes.
The same can’t be said for cricket in Australia either, and they come up with some brilliant advertising campaigns. I’m not a sales man and nor will I ever be, but I do find it fascinating how each country uses advertising to exploit the interest of a game to attract new visitors. Inevitably Australia do it with humour, and do it pretty well. Thanks to Duncans.tv here is Mike Hussey in an advert for the CB Series:
…continued…
…and…
3 Comments »Pietersen c Sangakkara b Vaas 1
By Will last year, mid-December, 6 Comments »
Oh how simple it sounds.
Pietersen c Sangakkara b Vaas 1
Alas, it is anything but - and the media (yes, I know I’m part of it, but I can still comment) might be making a meal of it in the coming 24 hours. For those of you who didn’t see it, this is what happened:
| 60.3 | Vaas to Pietersen, OUT, and the plan has worked, it’s a brilliant piece of work at slip, but wait, there’s controversy. Pietersen went for a drive at a wide ball, nicked to the third slip, Silva, who dived to his left and grabbed the catch low to the turf, it bobbles up and Sangakkara comes from first slip to take the rebound. Pietersen waits as the umpires consult, Harper raises his finger, but TV replays show the ball appears to have brushed the ground before the initial take by Silva. Pietersen waits inside the boundary, as he did at Lord’s earlier this year against India, but there’s no overturning this decision and he’s off |
Clarification from Andrew Miller:
The difference between the two incidents is that at Lord’s there wasn’t an original agreement between the umpires on Dhoni’s catch, it was given immediately by Simon Taufel. However, in Colombo the umpires conferred before deciding Pietersen was out and the laws state that the third official can only be used if the view of the on-field umpires is obstructed.
This is clearly bullshit and the law needs amending immediately. Like many, I still hanker after the good old days when video replays were rare and pretty inconclusive, but cricket must move with the times and we can’t have this middle-ground where technology is used sparingly. It’s making the sport look pretty damn stupid.
Your thoughts? Vote on the right-hand-side of the site, too.
Should the third umpire be consulted more often?
- Yes, for all decisions in which the on-field officials are unsure (49%, 25 Votes)
- Yes, but not for all decisions (22%, 11 Votes)
- Replace the umpires with robots and Noel Edmonds (20%, 10 Votes)
- No, leave it as it is (10%, 5 Votes)
Total Voters: 51
Loading …Video of Shane Warne’s TV adverts
By Will last year, at the start of December, No Comments; be the first!
Thanks to Allie for writing in with the link. (see photos, too)
No Comments »Shane Warne’s new TV advert
By Will last year, mid-November, 3 Comments »
He was an expert at bamboozling England’s batsmen, but now Shane Warne is set to leave viewers flummoxed in a new TV advert.
The spin legend spent hours in make-up to appear as a baby and also as his own mum and dad.
Warne said: “It was a hoot. I absolutely loved doing the ads.”
Do leave a comment if you’ve seen it or, better, have a link to it.
3 Comments »BBC: Tudors
By Will last year, mid-October, No Comments; be the first!
More non-cricket news because it’s far more important than anything else. Couch potatoes - in fact, everyone - should tune in and watch my friend Natalie in The Tudors this evening, and every evening. You should then tell everyone how brilliant you think she is, and spread the word about how startlingly attractive and gifted an actress she will be.
Get to it. She’s going to be absolutely massive.
No Comments »TWC commentator’s poll
By Jonathan Liew last year, at the end of September, 15 Comments »
The latest issue of the Wisden Cricketer features the now regular poll on readers’ favourite commentators. Geoff Boycott takes top spot, followed by Jonathan Agnew, David Lloyd, Michael Atherton and Michael Holding.
What does everyone think about that?
And why was Mark Nicholas
Sporting success and failure mirroring society?
By Will last year, mid-June, 2 Comments »
I’m about to sit down and watch Nation in Film, that BBC programme of West Indies’ tour in 1976. And the following teaser was uttered by Darcus Howe, one of the contributors.
I don’t think West Indian cricket ever had such an intense reflection of what was taking place in society
Is the same true of West Indies now? Does the success of a national sporting team reflect the successes or failures, depressions and moods of society? If it did back then (Howe says that Tony Greig’s “grovelling” comment was, in West Indians’ view, distinctly racist: white versus black), the effect is certainly less so nowadays.
I like stuff like this. Thoughts welcome.
2 Comments »West Indies in England, 1976 (TV)
By Will last year, mid-June, 4 Comments »
This Friday, BBC Two are showing archive footage (and behind the scenes stuff) of West Indies’ tour of England in 1976. This was Tony Greig’s famous “grovelling” comment - read Martin Williamson’s Rewind about it.
The remark was highly inflammatory for a number of reasons, the main one being that Greig’s words, coming from a white South African, were seized on for racist overtones. “The word ‘grovel’ is one guaranteed to raise the blood pressure of any black man,” Lloyd said. “The fact they were used by a white South African made it even worse. We were angry and West Indians everywhere were angry. We resolved to show him and everyone else that the days for grovelling were over.”
More at the Beeb.
4 Comments »Mark Butcher on ‘Just the Two of Us’
By Will last year, at the start of January, 1 Comment »
First there was Darren Gough. Then Mark Ramprakash. And now, Mark Butcher is the third recent England cricketer to swap his whites for the mic. It’s passed me by until now but, on a drizzly Sunday evening, what else can you do but wade through the TV channels and find some nonsense to watch? The nonsense is called Just the Two of Us and is one of these reality TV things. I hate them with furious passion.
Whereas Gough and Ramprakash had no dancing ability whatsoever, yet still somehow managed to win, Butcher is a guitarist and musician of repute. So he’ll probably win it like his two England colleagues did.
All is not lost, England. Andrew Flintoff is a keen Elvis fan so look out for him on this show next year, with Steve Harmison on maracas and Chris Read and Geraint Jones fighting for the drumsticks.
“It’s not a blood sport; this is music,” Butcher said. “It’s not about hurting people it’s about making you feel good, and hopefully we did that tonight.”
God help us all.
Update Superb work from Will. Moments after posting that, Butcher was cast off into oblivion. Sorry!
Parkinson: The Shane Warne interview
By Will last year, at the start of January, 1 Comment »
Michael Parkinson, the renowned television interviewer, will talk with Shane Warne this Monday at 7.30pm on Australia’s UK TV. If anyone watches it, do leave a comment afterwards for those of us who won’t be able to see it.
Never mind the cricketers. Think of us
By Will last year, at the start of January, 8 Comments »
The worst result of England’s dire winter has just hit me: the media response from the non-cricket-specific outlets. We are firmly back to the 1990s and it’s fairly sickening.
In the glory days of 2005 (if you can remember that far back), England’s victory silenced the doubters and the ignoramuses. They didn’t have any basis to slag the sport off; England were winning, and cricket was cool. All change. England are losing and cricket is for losers. Cue the dry-witted script-writers jumping all over England’s three-wheeling bandwagon with predictable, bland, pointless tongue-in-cheek remarks.
“And the third day’s play gets underway at 10.30 tonight - IF YOU CAN STAND IT - on BBC Radio 4 Long Wave,” reads the news reporter, with a smarmy ‘I know what I’m talking about; England can’t play cricket’ look on her face.
“Dark days for English cricket, then. But how’s the weather? Over to Mike Smugplank, hello Mike.”
“Oh hello there, yes, well England’s cricketers may not be enjoying the sun in Sydney and I’m afraid it’s not looking much brighter here either”
Oh how witty and clever - not to mention topical! Please change the record. You are not funny or remotely clever. And England’s so-called national sport, foot****, is still awarded the undeserved privilege of the news reader saying: “If you don’t wish to know the score, look away now”. Oh, come off it.
It’ll spread like a virus. Every comedy show, ever stand-up in London, every unimaginative script writer and bored subeditor on a daily will be trying desperately to fit in a mention to England’s failure as a cricket team. That’s fine, but for God’s sake don’t do it with a smarmy grin on your face!
And here endeth the first rant of 2007.
8 Comments »Super jacket, that
By Will 2 years ago, mid-December, 4 Comments »
The cream, the bone, the white, the off-white, the ivory, or the beige? It’s Richie Benaud from the 1974-75 series
Courtesy of TMS.
4 Comments »An odd couple: Colville and Willis
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of November, 3 Comments »
There’s a scathing attack by Jim White in today’s Telegraph on Sky’s coverage of the first Test. It’s done with humour though, and had me in stitches - especially this on Charles Colville and Bob Willis:
While Bhasin is all eager and enthusiastic, bouncing round Boycott in puppyish thrill at being there, Colville has taken it upon himself to become the Mr Angry of the Ashes, fuming about England’s selection decisions, poor bowling and limp fielding.
Anything and everything is capable of sending him into a tailspin of rage. After the first Test ended in ignominious defeat on Monday, he became so incensed he had to be restrained by his guest, Nick Knight.
“Whoa Charles,” Knight said, wearing the startled look of a man who had stumbled into a recording of the new series on Bravo, When Normally Mild Mannered Cricket Chaps Attack. In fact, it was lucky Knight was there to tip a verbal bucket of water over the steaming presenter. Had Colville’s guest been – as it sometimes has – Bob Willis, the blood pressure in the studio would have turned thermo-nuclear.
It takes an act of significant will not to cower behind the sofa every time Willis – almost as angry as Colville – comes on screen. Especially now he has taken to delivering his goggle-eyed rants direct into the camera.
All he needs is to borrow Boycott’s headgear and he will morph seamlessly into the John McCririck of cricket.
There is an obvious solution for Duncan Fletcher as he searches for the speediest way back into the series: put Colville and Willis out there in Adelaide and even the battled-hardened Aussies would take flight at the very sight of them.
Chuck’s great value - I’d rather him, with his passion and anger, than a bland, shiny toe-the-line presenter. More at the Telegraph.
3 Comments »Get in the mood for the first Test
By Will 2 years ago, mid-November, 10 Comments »
What better way (for an Englishman at least) to get in the mood for Wednesday night than to listen to the BBC cricket theme tune, Booker T and the MG’s Soul Limbo. Listen, loop, and enjoy.
10 Comments »Where to watch the Ashes…in London
By Will 2 years ago, mid-November, 12 Comments »
A plea for help from Srivaths who writes:
I saw your “Where to watch the Ashes in Hong Kong” post. I have a better
question for you. Where do I watch the Ashes in London? I’m a student from
India and moved in just recently and the sky box(or whatever it is called) is
broken in our student dig. I don’t think the pubs will be open in the mdiddle
of the night. Any ideas?
Damn good question, and I have no idea. Londonshire closes at 11 and woe betide anyone who walks within three feet of the bar. There must be somewhere, though, that can cater for the fans. Naturally you should all buy a crate of beer or decent malt, go home, get to bed, open the laptop and read the marvel that is Cricinfo dot com. But I appreciate you’re not all as sad and tragic as us.
12 Comments » « Previous Entries