CRICKET COVERAGE
BACK in April, Cricket Australia announced a $1.2 billion, six-year broadcasting deal with Channel 7 and Fox Sports. The phrase used by Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland was “more cricket coverage than ever before”.
Many viewers were under the assumption that both channels would be broadcasting all international cricket matches over the summer situres. multaneously, much the same as Fox Sports and Channel 9 in previous years.
This comes off the back of controversy involving the sandpaper incident in South Africa, player pay disputes, and issues with the board of Cricket Australia.
Once I heard the partnership announcement, I was shocked that for the first time in 40 years, Channel Nine would not be broadcasting Australia’s summer of cricket. Truly the end of an era, the end of the outstanding coverage Channel Nine and its legendary commentary team.
However I was still optimistic that the deal would benefit fans of our great game. This was until I found the list depicting the broadcasting schedule for the summer’s international fixtures. Branded as “cricket’s new era,” it illustrated that the only international games that would be on free-to-air television would be the men’s test fix- No international one day, or 20-20 matches were to be on free to air television.
Yet Channel Seven is still advertising its “every ball, every run, every wicket” broadcast of international cricket for the summer.
I found this conflicting, as some say that 50-over format of the game seems to be taking a backseat to the modern 20-20 game. Many experts are saying that the 50-over game needs to be made more appealing to the viewers.
So by denying these fixtures from free-to-air television this will surely perform negatively in the minds of the average cricket fan, hundreds of thousands of everyday Australians like myself.
This is on top of over inflated ticket prices that keep cricketing fans and families from attending games and seeing their cricketing heroes. I am more than disappointed at the decision that Cricket Australia has taken in order to edge the broadcasting of cricket away from the average fan of our nation’s game. Much a backwards step for the game and its millions of Australian followers. “Cricket’s new era,” will surely be “cricket’s new error”.
RUSSELL GREEN, Toowoomba