Welcome to the sixth instalment of a weekly blog offering a forum for cricket-loving folk around the world
Even in the middle of a family Christmas in Yorkshire there will be a time when I will be taking a mental stroll to the MCG. There is no better walk in the world than the Boxing Day stroll across Fitzroy Gardens to the G and this year with India in town there is lots to contemplate.
As Boxing Day morning dawns in Australia, and Christmas Day in England has had its energy sapped, I will be wondering if Ricky Ponting will still be an Australian Test cricketer by the end of the Test series, whether Sachin Tendulkar will choose the MCG as the place for his 100th India century (my money is on Adelaide), and whether the old curmudgeon Duncan Fletcher, now coach of India, will gain revenge for the 5-0 Australia whitewash that hastened his removal as England coach.
The headlines might tempt you to imagine that not much has changed in the years since Fletcher's England reign turned sour. Then Shane Warne was talking about how he had bowled out England. Now Warne is still talking about taking wickets, only these days he has taken the art a stage further and is predicting his wickets on microphone.
Such is Warne's allure that, as I write, the most read sports story on guardian.co.uk is how during a match between Melbourne All Stars and Brisbane Heat at The Gabba in Australia's Big Bash Twenty20 League, Warne predicted how he might dismiss New Zealand's Brendon McCullum ? and did just that. McCullum, who a couple of days earlier had his nose broken by a bouncer from Brett Lee, seems cast in the role of New Zealand fall guy.
Ponting's retention for the Melbourne Test, or the indeed the dropping of Phil Hughes, both far more significant stories for the purist, have not even warranted a mention. It is the glam of the Big Bash that gets the attention. Warne's ability to drum up publicity for the Big Bash by burning his hand while cooking a bacon sandwich and announcing himself doubtful for the opening match just shows there is no end to the happy gullibility of journalists eager for a celebrity story.
The Big Bash approaches the end of its first week in reasonable shape. If the size of the crowds has been just the good side of modest, with some fans no doubt enticed by the return of full-strength beer, the viewing figures have been impressive.
Warne's presence helped the match between Melbourne Stars and Sydney Thunder in the opening round draw an average of 488,000 viewers for the subscription channel, Foxtel, with an overall reach of 900,000. These do not sound overly large, but in the history of Australian pay-TV only three programmes have ever drawn a larger audience. There again, statistics can be used to prove all manner of things ? you could also contend that nearly half the people failed to watch the whole match.
It remains to be seen whether the momentum can be maintained. By staging the tournament from 16 December to 28 January, Cricket Australia has pitted it directly against the Test series with India. "Different audiences ? and different cities," says Cricket Australia's chief executive, James Sutherland, and he has a point, but that will mean an absence of Australia's Test players for the bulk of the tournament.
England's domestic Twenty20 must also survive with minimal involvement from its international stars, with coverage on a subscription channel and lukewarm media interest. But indications are that Australia is making a better effort of marketing an eight-team franchise than England is of promoting an 18-team county tournament. Steve Elworthy, the ECB's marketing and communications director, will have an all but impossible task to promote England's domestic T20 to its maximum extent as long as the England international fixture list is so overcrowded that the domestic circuit suffocates for lack of breathing holes.
I made that point to David Morgan this autumn in a hotel in Leeds as he carried out research into the future of county cricket. "It's all about breathing holes, David," I repeated at polite, five-minute intervals. Eventually, by force of repetition, I persuaded him to write it down, very neatly at the corner of his notebook, although I'm not convinced that he ever wrote it up again.
It is vital that lovers of Test cricket embrace Twenty20 not fear it. Without the commercial success that Twenty20 can bring, and a broader interest among future generations that it will encourage, Test cricket's chances of long-term survival are reduced. The game cannot survive for ever on half a dozen decent international sides and domestic set-ups in permanent financial crisis.
There are dangers that Twenty20 will develop its own stars, wedded entirely to the instant game, and further dangers that senior players such as Chris Gayle will retire prematurely from Test cricket, in the words of the American blues singer Jonny Lang, to wander this world all alone, dragging their feet from continent to continent in search of another easy pay day. But the dangers are far greater if cricket refuses to serve the needs of a more impatient, more loosely committed audience.
The walk to the MCG on Boxing Day will feel stranger this year. It will be a walk that brings not just memories of the past, or anticipation of the present, but trepidation about the future, but for all that it remains one of the great walks in the world.
Friday 11am update
? One of cricket's grandest series is only a couple of days away. Australia and India will begin their four-Test series at the MCG on Boxing Day; for the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Zaheer Khan, it is the last chance to be part of the first Indian side to win a Test series in Australia. There is also the small matter of Tendulkar being on 99 international hundreds.
? England's annus mirabilis was reflected at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards, with Andy Flower picking up the Coach of the Year award and England winning Team of the Year.
? First there was the forward press; now we have the Bradman rotary. Tony Shillinglaw, who played four List A games for Durham in the 1960s, claims to have worked out why Sir Donald Bradman had an abnormal Test average of 99.94. Shillinglaw says it is all to do with Bradman's unusual method. "The secret of Bradman's batting was once the movement had started it never stopped, which produces a rhythm," he said. "He didn't bat with his hands, his whole body moved. He'd start the circle before the ball was bowled."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/dec/22/guardian-world-cricket-forum
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