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Following the selection of Australia’s one day squad for the first two games against Sri Lanka, both Malcolm Conn and Chris Barrett suggested that Channel Nine is less than happy about the team chosen to face Sri Lanka.
The simple thing I’d be saying to Nine’s director of sport, Steve Crawley, is to deal with it.
Sure, you might want David Warner in every Australian side, and let’s give Mike Hussey a great farewell tour of the country – but it’s not in the best interests of the Australian team.
I’m fairly sure I read the other day that Warner didn’t miss an Australian game in any format during 2012.
Maybe the selectors put it to him in this way:
“Now that you’ve cemented your place in all three sides, why don’t you have a break Davey? You’re no good to us tired. After all, energy and enthusiasm is what you bring to the team, and you can’t do that when you’re constantly playing.”
They might have continued: “While we’re at it, skip the Delhi Daredevils if they won’t even play you in the Champions League – you are the new Sehwag…the old model is rapidly coming to the end of his career.”
And as for Mr Cricket, perhaps John Inverarity had this to say to him: “As soon as you said you were retiring at the end of the international summer, you gave us every reason to not include you in the side.”
“Giving your replacement games against good but not great ODI teams on home soil is an excellent way to start his career. After all Mike, you did start your Test career against the Windies – and you got a hundred in your second Test in Hobart. It worked for you…”
I should note that both Warner and Hussey have been publicly supportive of the selectors’ decisions.
But back to Channel Nine, they haven’t had an influence on selection since Kerry Packer bought all the players for World Series Cricket. No doubting he got the best he could – in fact it’s my opinion that these games should be officially recognised, but that’s another topic for another day.
As soon as Kerry got the cricket broadcasting rights, Channel Nine became nothing more than a broadcaster of the game, instead of financing and running a huge cricket carnival every summer.
While I’m not blind to the reality of a television broadcaster wanting bigger ratings for its product (so in essence what Steve Crawley said is probably predictable), I still think they’re wrong to make those views public.
Nine may have had the TV rights for decades and have significant advantages when it comes to signing the next deal, but perhaps they would be better served making their point forcefully behind the scenes, rather than speaking to journalists from the biggest newspapers in the country.
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