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NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell has realised that the quickest way to the electorate’s heart is to bring big name sporting events to Sydney.
Those from the harbour city have looked longingly in a southerly direction for years now as Melbourne hosted one huge sporting event after another.
Most of the internationally recognised events live in Victoria.
The Melbourne Cup, Australian Formula One Grand Prix and the Australian Open tennis are just a few of the events that have ensured the city can, without exaggeration, lay claim to be the sporting capital of the nation.
Sydney might be the place for postcards, but Melbourne holds the beating heart of a country that lives and breathes sport.
Now, the two states are at war over the hosting rights for the final of the 2015 ICC cricket World Cup.
Who said one-day internationals were dead?
O’Farrell has, ever so slowly, made the big event a part of Sydney’s landscape again.
It’s a much needed change in thinking for a state that had lost its way when it came to hosting the cream of the sporting crop.
He sent Queenslanders into white hot rage by ensuring New South Wales would host two State of Origin games next year and then there was the capture of Manchester United who’ll take on an A-League all stars side in the middle of 2013.
The Premier was quoted in yesterday’s paper as saying that “Sydney is the major events capital of Australia.”
That’s a big statement, but ultimately one that will require far more actions to back it up.
The only problem is the venue.
No matter how hard you change the dimensions, ANZ Stadium isn’t a cricket ground.
At the moment, the stadium is the home of Big Bash League battlers, the Sydney Thunder, but it’s not a place where boundaries are hard to come by.
It’s fine for Twenty20 hit and giggle, but when it comes to playing the World Cup final, a game of that magnitude deserves to be at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
It’s the undoubted home of cricket in Australia.
The ground calls fans down the Yarra river from the city where pubs empty around game time and the pilgrimage towards the stadium, that is clearly visible from the CBD, begins.
The atmosphere on the day of a big event in Melbourne is electric and unmatched.
Sydney Olympic park has become a much more palatable proposition on game day than in the past.
There’s more bars and restaurants than their used to be.
NRL grand final day was livelier outside the ground than ever before.
It deserves a semi-final, but the decider should be staged at a traditional cricket venue.
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