Early during Monday night’s second innings of the Australia-Zimbabwe World Cup clash at Ahmedabad, commentator Ian Chappell made an important point: Australia hadn’t played Zimbabwe in a one-day international level for seven years.
Yes, the last fixture of this kind was way back in 2004. Go and squint at an old calendar if you don’t believe me.
And I suddenly realised two things – both related to each other.
One, I was enjoying watching Zimbabwe! And two, I was yet again miffed by Channel Nine’s feeble attempts at covering a cricket World Cup.
In this age of digital-everything, how Nine can start the telecast (admittedly live) at near-midnight for just the second dig is beyond me. The match itself, according to the CricInfo website, had begun around 8pm (Eastern Standard Time in Australia).
What did we get on Nine according to the TV guide? “Two And A Half Men”, “S**t My Dad Says”, “Underbelly” and “Crime Investigation Australia”.
It wasn’t even a Sunday night with the need for Nine News and 60 Minutes – this was arguably one of the most well-known national sporting teams this country has, at a World Cup, no less, receiving paltry coverage.
I made periodic checks on the internet for the scores before switching on my television, which, incidentally, is HD digital.
Didn’t anyone at Nine HQ consider HD? Stick the World Cup matches featuring Australia (I want all the others but haven’t felt like I want to pay Rupert Murdoch) on either GO or GEM. If not, I so hope ONE.HD gets the 2015 edition.
Back to point one, though, why did I say I liked watching Zimbabwe? Because it’s the World Cup.
The same reason why I’d enjoy South Korea v Bolivia at the FIFA World Cup, or Japan v USA at the rugby equivalent.
I should be allowed a window onto the biggest stages in world sport to see not only the teams networks reckon we want to see, but also the other teams that make such events international in scope.
Why else do you think Olympic volleyball replays at 2.30am on SBS2 were such a hit last time?
The result itself didn’t matter to be honest – as a fan of cricket, it’s great to be part of the World Cup armchair crowd. A shame Nine won’t let us linger longer in those armchairs this time around.
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