A master of short columns
January 24, 2006Tim de Lisle proves it once again in his new column on cricinfo. He has mixed reactions on BCCI’s superpower status:
Business has the upper hand. TV contracts go to the broadcasters with the most money, not those with the most viewers. Administrators express themselves in the grim, grey jargon of the businessman. Players blithely promote companies that run sweatshops, cause pollution, create obesity, collude with tyrants. Even the ICC aspires to be a brand.. ..The Champions’ Trophy has yet to find a decent format, let alone a place in cricket lovers’ hearts. The FTP has done more harm than good, abolishing the one-off Test (except when it suited ICC for its Super “Series”), creating far too many two- and three-Test series, and making five-Test series even harder to schedule. And someone had to do something about Bangladesh.
He ventures in the new fast bowlers we are seeing:
The rising generation of fast bowlers are a different breed, delivering more ferocity and less precision. We are witnessing the end of a game of patience.
Finally, Kerry Packer isn’t looked at with tinted glasses which the media has done:
His personal baby, the annual triangular series of 50-over internationals, was exposed as a bore. Spectators turned up, because Australia’s cities are far-flung and it’s a great country for floodlit viewing. But as sport, the B&H, Carlton, VB or whatever you called it was a dud, long-winded and repetitive. The triangle was too often one-sided.. ..His TV coverage, on Channel 9, was similarly stolid, and was made to look it as soon as Britain’s Channel 4 entered the picture.
