After reading yesterday about the two new franchise name and colour combinations for Sydney’s 2011-12 Big Bash League teams, I don’t want to do what the advertising and marketing men want. I refuse to “trust pink and forget stains” when it comes to the way Cricket Australia is running the domestic level of the sport.
They may prize their new BBL product as something that will “vanish” the more traditional forms of the game in a single white-wash of the schedule, but I’m not buying it one bit.
According to the ads for the aforementioned laundry detergent, “it works on all types of stains, from the ones you can clearly see to those tiny ones you might miss”.
Stains like Australia’s recent record in Test cricket – vanished!
The public’s fondness for well-structured one-day series – vanished! The fact that most people seemed perfectly happy with the state-based Twenty20 format – vanished!
As reported yesterday in the Sydney Morning Herald by Andrew Wu, it’ll be the Sydney Thunder – in bright green at the Olympic Stadium in Homebush, while the Sydney Sixers (I can hear Adelaide’s basketball fans already choking on their breakfast cereal) will play at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
What else was considered? The Rocks and the Edge, apparently. In orange and yellow. Sounds like a cross between the World Wrestling Federation and a U2 concert.
“Certainly, when these two teams play each other you’re going to have to get your sunglasses,” Cricket New South Wales chief executive officer David Gilbert was quoted as saying. Yikes. Talk about trying to talk up something that already sounds unsellable.
Thankfully, the two Sydney sides were banned from using the official New South Wales state colour of blue.
Of course, as has been mentioned already, the green is nicked from the Surrey Lions while the pink recalls the Middlesex Panthers in the English county competition, despite Cricket NSW’s commercial operations manager Christina Matthews’ assertion that both clubs will have “an identity all our own rather than copy someone else”.
“When you’re picking colours you’re looking at what’s going to be looking good for merchandise, uniforms and things like that,” she added.
So before you even start selling the new shirts, people will find out that they aren’t that original. Perhaps Englishmen living in Australia next summer can just block their ears at the ground and imagine it’s really a T20 game from the other side of the world?
For the purely statistically-minded out there, the bright green of the Surrey Lions may work. It won one T20 Cup in it. The same for the Middlesex Panthers (or the Crusaders, until complaints by both Jewish and Muslim groups encouraged the County board to have a re-think).
However, both finished outside the top eight in the 2010 edition. Middlesex has been at the T20 Champions League, though. Maybe there is something to thinking pink, after all?
Steve Wells of The Guardian knew it back on June 20, 2007.
“Real men wear pink!” he wrote.
“Sports stars should embrace pink,” he went on.
“Of course pink was once as butch as it comes. Any half-decent sociologist will tell you that right up to the 1930s, girls wore virgin blue and boys wore rugged pink.”
The best argument Wells can come up with for pink working?
“The England football team have never lost while wearing pink shirts,” he wrote.
“Partly because they’ve never worn pink shirts. Imagine if they did. And they beat Argentina wearing them. How good would that feel?
And we’ve probably all heard the theories that certain colours can play on the mind of the opposition (red is best for footballers because it makes the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool appear aggressive, apparently – although orange hasn’t exactly helped the Dutch at the top level very often).
Ultimately, though, it’s not the colour pink itself that bothers me about the oncoming BBL promotional storm – whether people think it promotes metrosexual pride, breast cancer awareness or intensive care wards exclusively devoted to caring for baby girls – but about what it says about Cricket Australia’s approach to the game.
If Cricket Australia really think this is what the majority of the cricket fans in this country want to see, it’s playing the wrong game and if sanity prevails, it should lose. Big time. Pass me a bottle of bleach to drink – I think I’m going to be sick.
EvertonAndAustralia
Roar Pro
AGREED!!!!!!!
Atawhai Drive
Guest
It's all a bit of a fiasco. Oh, hang on, Fiasco might be the name of a team. Tne marketing spivs strike again. That's all from me. Back to the Sheffield Shield final (good to see Phil Hughes hit some form at last).
fisher price
Guest
Cricket Australia continues to chip away at cricket in this country with its cash-hungry priority of 20/20 slogging. I don't like hit-and-giggle cricket full stop, but this Big Bash League takes the cake.
formeropenside
Guest
I swear, its like Cricket Australia is trying their hardest to make me care as little about cricket as possible.
Russ
Guest
Robbo, that is a slur on the NBA. Their names are generally pretty good. Even the bizarro ones (Jazz, Lakers) have historical connections. The Maxx may be the better of the two Melbourne names. The survey sent out to choose names from listed the possibilities for the establishment team as Hammer, Mercury, Majors, Maxx, Dukes, and Guns; and the "multi-cultural team" as Blitz, Renegades, Slam, Lightning, Crushers, Destroyers, Rampage, and Rumble. Not just generic, but racist. Top work marketeers!
adam
Guest
Brett, I did have a little bit of sick in my mouth when typing that.
Ben Carter
Roar Guru
Hi Robbo - I've said that all along mate. Just add ACT and NT and be done with it, eight teams, keeps the state rivalry bit that fans like and it's still T20! Simple!
Bludger
Guest
Jaysus, marketing people get paid, I mean they really get 'paid', 'real money' to come up with this tripe? Do you get your money back if it falls a over t? BTW, I hope a team does go and wear all pink. It will be nice to look back at laugh at this entire ludicrous concept in 5 or 10 years from now and just say, 'what were they thinking'. Notice that there is more than the odd token female brainstorming the ideas for this Big Bash League. Funny thing is, don't see too many women in the stands or playing matches. Maybe I should be over in Milan or Paris showing the fashion industry how to redesign the handbag. The world seriously has gone mad. Maybe with all these disasters going on, it wouldn't be that bad if it all ended rather suddenly.
Robbo
Guest
The Sixers, the Heat, the Maxx???This isn't the NBA. Why doesnt Cricket Australia just keep the original state teams in the Twenty20 competition and if they really want to expand the comp to 8 teams, then why not place a team in Canberra or bring in a composite side from the New Zealand competition. Why mess with the Big Bash which has been a proven success over the past five years. As a lifelong Redbacks supporter, I can tell you right now I will not be forking out $100+ for an Adelaide Pistons?? guernsey.
Brett McKay
Expert
Ha!! The thought of Twenty20 cricket having dignity!! Oh Adam, you're killing me...
adam
Guest
Brett I wish that you were kidding there but I'm afraid that you're not. How much are the marketing people trying to cheapen the BBL and strip what little dignity it would have?
Ben Carter
Roar Guru
Oh dear. Oh dear. oh dear.
Brett McKay
Guest
True story Tristan, though I've since found today that 7-Eleven have walked away from the White Sox, and start times have reverted to ... wait for it, 7:10pm!! The announcement, back in 2006: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/sports/baseball/11sox.html The walk-away, last year: http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=4843174 Another GFS casualty, it seems...
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Brett, that 7:11pm starting time is genius! Had a real laugh when I read that.
Brett McKay
Guest
Adam, I don't know there's been any announcements per se (see http://bit.ly/f0S7pC for how little has been announced), apart from this one for the NSW teams, though it's become know the Brisbane team will be the Heat (I believe), the Hobart team will be the Hurricanes, and I believe one Melbourne team will be known as the Maxx - yes, that's two x's...
Fivehole
Guest
The Brisbane heat. Not sure of any others. so far so shite.
Fivehole
Guest
Sheek, its the West Sydney Thunder playing out of Homebush. The Sydney Sixers, appropriately in pink, will be the ones getting caught behind from the paddington end! (© Twelfth Man)
adam
Guest
has there been any announcements about the other franchise names yet?
sheek
Guest
Ben, After self-analysis, I can accept the new franchises for the BBL. In fact, I honestly believe state based teams are an invention of 19th & 20th century Australia that will struggle to find relevance in the 21st century. Especially since something like 3 out of 4 Australians live in the 5 mainland largest cities. That said, you simply convert NSW Blues to Sydney Blues, Victoria Bushrangers to Melbourne Bushrangers, & so on. The exception would be Tassie Tigers, which would remain as is. Thus a connection with our past history & tradition is retained. As new teams are added, they can find appropriate nicknames/symbols relevant to their city & region. All this makes sense since you would think that eventually a Sydney Blues or Melbourne Bushrangers team would be represented in all 3 forms of cricket - Sheffield Shield, One Dayers, T20. That's assuming CA wishes to preserve Sheffield Shield &/or One Dayers! What I can't cop, & object to strenuously, is the agenda being hijacked by insensitive, gimmicky marketeers who have little regard for the history, not only of the game, but also those cities & regions involved. Sydney Thunder is barely passable, but West Sydney Sixers is pathetic. Nor am I a fan of lime green or hot pink. I remember the NBL Adelaide team was known as the 36ers. This was appropriate to SA since that was the year Adelaide was founded & the state promulgated. But Sixers is a nothing nickname. Making cricket relevant to a younger & new audience is sensible up to a point. Things can't remain the same forever. But tossing out history & tradition as well, is unforgivable.
Jay
Guest
It would work better if Dale Steyn was playing for the "Thunder". Dad joke, I know...