Finally, some passion in the Big Bash

Christo, I'm sorry and I'm sure Warnie is too, that he didn't live up to the 'big girl's blouse' expectations you seem to have. Maybe synchronise swimming is more your speed. At least you live up to the 'tall poppy syndrome' that sadly seems to be alive and well in Australia. I'm tipping John McEnroe almost had you in tears, or maybe that was before your time. Maybe you need to sit down when you're watching the big boys play, so your skirt doesn't blow up in your face and you miss the real stuff in cricket.

Possibly Roboh, my point isn’t that we shouldn’t use slang words derived from other places, otherwise top of my ‘hit list’ would be the annoying ‘24-7-365’ we’ve borrowed from the Yanks. My point was to say that I enjoy that we have used Aussie slang to label something so often derided as foreign (the game of football) and that is something we should hang onto IMO.

Isn't 'naff' British slang?

That's part of the reason I am coming around more and more to calling SFC v MBV games The “Big Blue.” With football being such a global game, it is a pity that we only seem to choose English language ( and thus predominantly British) labels for things in Australian football. The Name: Big Blue sounded naff in the extreme to me at first but it is growing on me, it ties in a bit of local lingo/slang and is a truly Aussie contribution to the world of football.

I can't believe that no one has consider the whole thing was orchestrated by the marketing department to drum up interest in the BBL. The BBL has been dropping its ratings and suddenly Warnie starts to care about the result? Please.

Brick Tamlin of the Pants Party, part of the problem at the moment with the BBL is the depth. You've got the international players playing against guys who are on the fringe of making the state teams. Giving these lower level players an income will certainly allow them to train professionally.

Roboh theres already a fair amount of the absolute elite 20 over players here,they don't get much bigger than Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle so they are going put more bums on seats than anyone.I don't understand what giving these players more money is going to do to the quality of their game,you make it sound like they are part timers,busting your butt in the nets improves the quality of your cricket not money.

Brick Tamlin of the Pants Party, saying "The BBL is as good as it gets right now" is a bit ridiculous, don't you think? What do you think giving more cricketers enough money to be professionals will do to the quality of their game? What do you think increased TV rights will do to the salary cap? What do you think will happen with a higher salary cap allowing more overseas marquee signings? What do you think having teams exist for enough time to win fans and build rivalries will do? The drop in BBL ratings and crowds is the classic second year syndrome, and should have been expected by everyone. They are still at very respectable levels and have every opportunity to improve in coming years.

It was entirely staged, there was no passion in that. I'll bet London to a Brick CA asked Warnie to do them a solid and get their mugs on TV for them. It came across like that to me. Pretty soon the Sports cycle will turn to the ODis, HAL Finals and footy pre-seasons and the BBL will be all alone by itself in plastic league land.

Come on, we're waiting Jole.

Bondy, Not sure what your on about, go outside and clear your head of your imaginary argument :)

Redb, You dont know what your talking about or are just lying one of the two ,both Emerton and Kewell and at the time current socceros came back last year from international football in the biggest markets of Syd @Mlb they drove attendances up last year how could've they have gone backwards every game they played around the country people turned out, another fictitious statement.

How?

Well its a matter of opinion as to what is outstanding. Its was only last season that the A League plunged to low levels that this year looks a lot better. WSW has added to the league, but Heart remains an issue. Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth dont seem to have grown much either. Sydney FC needed a big name marquee to draw a crowd - but thats about the marquee not the standard of play. The BBL is only in its second year and with some success the Sydney teams will improve. Hobart producing great crowds, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth all solid. The Melbourne teams still finding their way and establishing a brand, the incident between Warne and Samuels has helped polarise opinion which is ultimately good for the team's fan base, more so Renegades than the Stars. The BBL has a lot of work to do to win over the purist cricket fan so there is growth potential as cricket is hugely popular in OZ.

In the context of cricket, what Warne did was almost unprecedented. As such he should have been treated very harshly. As should Samuels for his actions in the first innings. While it might look like nothing if you compare it to what happens in various forms of football, all that does is prove how low the standards of what's considered acceptable behaviour have fallen in those sports.

Outside of horse racing "derby" sounds very contrived

Tv ratings and crowd attendance are outstanding for A-League considering the level.As the level of play increases and better players come here so will the ratings.The BBL is as good as it gets right now i'll be interested to see what shape its in 6 years from now.

Fragile - your kidding right I'm an AFL fan on the Roar :) The TV ratings in the first year were due to novelty, you would expect them to drop off, they were out of this world, bigger than the NRL or AFL's biggest games. Perhaps finding their TV ratings level now, the Melbourne Derby rated 280,000 on Foxtel which is pretty good. I think the BBL had a slow start but has picked up momentum since the Boxing Day test. Its laughable for A League fans to tell us the TV ratings for the BBL are plummeting yet the HAL is up. The BBL ratings were massive last year in the 300-450K range, the HAL coming off about 70K last year. Francis Leach has not been the only one however its useful to draw a line somewhere and then compare the hubris later. The 'concerning' issue for the HAL is the potential Foxtel audience illustrated by the BBL last year if you get both NRL and AFL subscribers engaged, it is 400K+, the HAL is nowhere near this despite a 'national' footprint.

Yep and one of those people watching on tele was me and probably lots of other football fans aswell but as good as ratings are the fact is they've halfed from last season,quite a concern seeing the comps in its second year.I find your comment on how fragile A-League fans are fragile a little hard to swallow when one article by Francis Leach has you so fired up.I can't imagine you'd cope as an A-League supporter after all the column inches spent slagging off the league.

More like posting some info that shows how niche the HAL is. 20% of not much - tv ratings.