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When we were younger and interested in both cricket and football, we thought that cricket could learn from club football. Now, having pretty much completely forsaken football due to it having become an earth-rattling shodfest that’s part soap opera and part corporate dick-swinging contest, we’re a bit worried that cricket is showing signs of following the same path.
On the face of it, the Twenty20 Champions’ League could be a lot of fun. There are good players and it’s potentially a punchy little tournament with a handful of underdogs in the mix. However, if the rich, powerful sides start manipulating the cricket world to ensure their continued success in such tournaments, we’re not so far away from non-news articles about Mahendra Dhoni maybe thinking about switching clubs. And that’s where we exit.
The amount of money riding on these 20/20 nonsense-fests will result in teams full of mongoose-wielding, drug-fuelled muscleheads battering the shit out of anything that moves, while the BCCI refuses to have its civil liberties violated by anyone questioning the morality of its match-fixed nonsense. It will look very much like the WWE. Mark my words.
It is too much of ‘If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium.’ If that makes any sense at all. I am going to stop remembering the names of tournaments.
Meh.
More 20/20? More franchise-based cricket? More cricket ridiculously biased towards batsmen? More cheesy, fake, razmatazz?
I couldn’t give a rat’s arse about any of it.
I’m pretty much only interested in Tests involving England, and since they moved to Sky (which I won’t pay for until they implement purely pay-per-view charges with no monthly subscription), and then I moved to the US anyway, I’m reduced to the modern day equivalent of watching matches via teletext.
That said, I get a soupcon of masochistic enjoyment by following Leicestershire’s results and wondering which good young player will be poached/leave for a proper team next.
I think this format of champions trophy is much better than the ODI world cup. All the matches were interesting.
My money’s on James Taylor
Now the bowling demolition unit that is Durham has entered the off season, I might well follow the soap opera that is Trescothick, or perhaps even Collys bum – will it even make it to the bench for this one. And yes that is the most interest I can muster.
These 2020 franchise things may be improved by not having a subscription to Sky: the only way to avoid the tackiness. I will be following it here and on Crickinfo if I can be assed – cos I threw together a couple of those fantasy teams. The down side is you have to pay attention to who is actually playing to get any points…the bottom of the table beckons…
Other than that what do they call this tournament again?
Alex, you mean a team comprised of 11 Shane Watsons? Dark days indeed.
Think it’s on Eurosport. Is Eurosport not a Freeview one?
Crikey, it is on Eurosport. And i’ve got Eurosport.
I’m probably going to watch a lot of this tournament then as:
a) I’m unemployed at present
b) This will be the first live cricket i’ve watched on TV in my home for many years. Poor quality streams on my computer don’t count.
Another problem with the ‘champions league’ is that some players will find themselves contracted to two teams playing in the same tournament, and therefore be obliged to appear in a match for both teams at the same time. Inevitably, at some point this will lead to a batsman taking guard at the crease only to find himself facing himself bowling, which surely contravenes the laws of both cricket and nature.
How will Trescothick cope with being away from Mother England?
That’s all I’m interested in.
Alex what about whores like brendon mccullum? He played for australian, kiwi and indian teams last year.
I can’t wait to see how wayamba goes against the big dollar teams.
Watched it last night on Eurosport.
I still feel nauseous.