The 1980s contained plenty of significant cultural events. Terrible haircuts. Michael Jackson. The assassination of John Lennon and the peace movement. The eradication of smallpox.
It also had the founding of the Slow Food movement by Carlo Petrini in reaction to the McDonaldification of Rome.
Since that time, Slow Food has gained plenty of attention and devotees for its ambitious and well-intentioned principles, with Australia’s own Maggie Beer, the matriarch of Australian cuisine, bringing the goodness to Australia in 1995.
Since then, the Slow movement has taken off in all sorts of fields. There’s now Slow Beer (it is delicious!), Slow Church, Slow Media, Slow Science, Slow Travel and even Slow Parenting.
The principles of the original Slow Food movement were interesting for many who had lamented the demise of their traditional food culture, and were things that I believe many people also think about and resonate with when it comes to sport.
Some of the distilled principles of the Slow Food movement are things like the preservation of local traditions and customs, a focus on the sustainable production of ingredients, and an effort to preserve heirloom and other varieties, stripping things back to smaller scale, and encouraging ethical purchases, treatment of ingredients and organic approaches to farming.
All of this was in reaction to the fast food movement, which was and still is gripping the world. Head to Vietnam, and you’ll find a KFC. In the middle of Paris? You’ll probably find as many Maccy D’s as boulangeries.
The whole Slow Food movement was triggered by the opening of a fast food restaurant in Rome. Fast food had gone too far.
So we come to fast sport.
Twenty20 cricket. Rugby Sevens. Auckland Nines. You could argue that American-style all-star fixtures fit under this umbrella. And the latest addition to the fast sport calendar, bearing the name of the movement, Fast4 Tennis.
None of these things have bad aims. They all aim to spread the love and joy of their sport to a wider audience. They are almost always marketed as a ‘family friendly’ alternative to the original version of the sport.
They are also adding to the cultural fabric of the sport as well as their shortened form allows them to. But the trappings of fast food are evident in T20 cricket, as well as rugby sevens and Fast4 Tennis.
Essentially meaningless teams and contests (BBL, IPL, Fast4) meet over a short game and tournament duration. It strips back the more mental elements of the game to focus purely on the physical. There are more roars from the crowd in a shorter space of time. There are less intense mental battles for superiority. Or if there are just as many, they are fought over a shorter period, placing the emphasis on big moments rather than temperament and enduring skill.
It’s not about the ethical treatment of the contest, but about celebrating the physical accomplishments of the athletes. And it’s starting to sound a little more like fast food.
The best bit about all of it is the money that these tournaments create important revenue for the sports, that can ideally be funnelled back into the grassroots of the sport, or help prop up the more foundational but less popular tournaments being played out by professionals.
Events might be gratuitous and generally monotonous wherever they’re played in the world, but it brings people through the gates, and gets them buying burgers.
You could argue, in some ways, that the fast sport movement in Australia begin in 1971, with the first limited overs cricket international. We embraced the new format so much that World Series Cricket was created in 1977 to satiate the appetite for the new form.
But you could also say that World Series Cricket created a brand new tradition in the cricketing world, one that should be celebrated rather than lamented as the downfall of cricket.
Was it Twenty20 cricket? If you look at the Big Bash League and IPL crowd and television figures, and the subsequent revenue they must be creating, you would probably suggest that T20 is the McDonald’s of the fast sport movement.
Fast4 tennis is the new player, which doesn’t yet look to have found its place in the market.
My question is: when does fast sport take over from the Slow?
The point of fast food is to fill a hole. But its producers tell us that it’s a sometimes food, only to be enjoyed as part of a healthy diet.
Is is the same with sport? Can sporting snobs, connoisseurs and hardcore fans come together and enjoy the traditional contest steeped in history without fear of having the fast shoved in their face? Or in the days of shorter attention spans and Generation Y, is fast sport destined to become as ubiquitous and easily accessible around the world as McDonald’s or KFC?
Like finding a restaurant that doesn’t serve pizza in the heart of Bratislava, are we destined to a future of continual degradation of traditional sporting values?
Or will the rise stop, the obsession with shortening and culling cease, and the celebration of Test cricket, Grand Slam tennis and the celebration of the long game recommence?
It hasn’t reached panic stations yet. The IPL is not yet a 38-week EPL-esque marathon. The BBL is bringing people to the game of cricket, and Test cricket is still loved by most who consider themselves cricket fans.
Whether Sevens will ever truly take off with its Olympic inception is yet to be seen, and Fast4 just seems unnecessary.
But sport must be consumed in a balanced fashion. Too many quarter pounders, and you know what happens. Too many maximums, and I think we’re not doing ourselves any favours as sports fans.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
I've stumbled on this article quite late in the piece. Very intelligent writing, and not a bad analogy, to equate the speeding up of various sporting contests to the mass produced fast food industry. I have to admit, I get the need to return to more traditional values as far as food goes, afterall, the fast mass-produced stuff is so obviously inferior, that it is pointless arguing the toss. But with these sporting movements, I have trouble in referring to them as inferior, they are different, and in most cases. they sit comfortably alongside the other forms. I guess the main concern Patrick has is with the possibility of T20 surpassing the Test cricket as the preferred game for spectators/TV viewers. I'm not really sure that that is a real danger, with Test cricket continuing to be the ultimate form of the game at its highest level, in particular, between national teams, and T20 being very much a club-based format. Having said that, the figures for this year's BBL are quite outstanding. I was just reading a feature article in the HS this morning on this very topic. Average attendances: 22,889 (up 18%) TV ratings: current averaging a national audience of 927,113 (recent Stars win peaked at 1.57 million) Both of these figures are excellent results in anyone's language.
Patrick Effeney
Editor
That would be belting!
Patrick Effeney
Editor
I agree. It's more a question for the future for mine. Where does the rise stop? Will there be a backlash, as there was in the foodie world? Not many answers, but an interesting discussion!
Patrick Effeney
Editor
If it's quantity, then Test cricket should be adored above all else! There is so much of it, after all.
Patrick Effeney
Editor
I've had my share of bad ones... I think there are some photos of me online bowling that attest to that.
Patrick Effeney
Editor
It's not so much that I hate T20, but more that I hope it remains the saviour it currently is, rather than becoming the main event. This article is more about the obsession, and whether it will stop, and whether it will turn the other way.
Patrick Effeney
Editor
I just hope the kids graduate from happy meal, to quarter pounder, to slow food. I did, so I suppose there's no reason why I should believe everyone else can't. We live in hope.
Patrick Effeney
Editor
Goodness. I thought golf was the one sport that hadn't succumbed, though I was aware of the decline in memberships. Better revise my plans for a birthday present then...
Bondy
Guest
Just on these abbreviated sports Fast 4's, BBL's etc can they create nation defining moments, sporting moments that define a nation .
sheek
Roar Guru
Patrick, All of a sudden I like you. I like you a lot. A young guy with 'old fashioned ' values! ;-) Sigh..... As is my want I might provide an answer in a roundabout way. I've been reading up on a few articles about why sportsmen are paid so much. On the surface the salaries that today's sportsmen, & women, are paid, is obscene. But perhaps not so surprisingly, it comes back to the old supply & demand argument. A wonderful, very simple example was given in one article I read. In 2010, Floyd Mayweather was paid US$65 million for punching a guy in the face in a ring. Sounds ridiculous until you learn that over 1.4 million people bought his fight against Shane Mosley on pay-per-view TV for a total of US$78.3 million. And that was just the one-time viewing Pay-TV revenue. I lament the handing over of naming rights of sports stadiums holus-bolus to corporates; I lament the proliferation of multiple alternate playing strips for each team; I lament a lot of things. Or giving national team naming rights to a sponsor: Qantas Wallabies - give me a break! But I understand that as long as there is a market out there for whatever the corporates are flogging, even if it's crap, then they'll continue to do it when there's a buck to be made. So, we the public & the fans, are the mugs who allow so much of this rubbish to proliferate. I read here on The Roar some years ago a guy say that he didn't care what he watched on TV, as long as he had 24/7 sport. Quantity over quality. Case closed. :-)
Kavvy
Guest
Eastern Europe? Yeah the five a side, ten minute halves handball (handball fives) and The shortened form Of water polo (the Balkanstroy sponsored WP15 league) are really selling out the true fabric of the sports
Shouts Chen
Guest
T20 is an exciting game yet some people might still want to watch the International cricket.
Bill
Guest
Good to see your haircut is a homage to the 80s.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Anthony, Agree with everything you've said there. While you mention the mother side of sporting selection I have noticed another interesting development thanks to T20. Cricket has always been a very Anglo-Irish pursuit. Even now with more than 50 years of multiculturalism only a handful of players from outside that grouping have emerged. What I've noticed is a lot of non traditional groups actively supporting the BBL. it makes a different change to hear two Lebanese blokes talking about how great last nights game was. As for the meaningless argument. I watch it nearly every night. You can actually hear the different groups cheering their respective teams. If you watched the Stars/Renegades game you could see two distinct groups of supporters. The number of kids I've seen in Sixers and Thunder shirts are another indicator of its rising popularity.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
The Ashes are the pinnacle of Test Cricket. It's the biggest series in Test Cricket bar none. It's what Test Cricket. The fabric of the game itself.
Ryan Buckland
Expert
Enjoyable read Patrick, thanks. I didn't watch the Fast4 Tennis - or haven't watched it, there's a few instances of it isn't there, anyway, the point remains - so I can't comment directly on that. But I would echo the sentiments of what others have commented on here: the length of time in tennis isn't really a problem, is it? The only games that ever go for more than a couple of hours are because the quality of play is such that neither player can get an upper hand. They're trying to solve a problem that isn't actually a problem. Cricket, on the other hand, is something I watch far too much of. And I get what you're saying, but unlike Fast4 I think T20 solves one of cricket's problems as an mass entertainment product. Games go for 7-8 hours (ODIs) or 32-40 hours (tests) regardless of the quality of play, which can lead to meandering contests that don't engage people that aren't fanatics. T20 is a neat, 3 and a bit hour package that you really find hard to switch off from if you're engaged; you feel compelled to watch every ball. Long form cricket still has its place, and if for some strange reason I was only allowed to slap the title "cricket" onto tests/first class or T20 I would call the former cricket and the latter T20. Could T20 be improved? I think so. But is solves one of cricket's problems as an entertainment product - and like it or lump it (I know which side of that debate I fall into) that is the lens through which professional sport is now viewed. Dammit, I really wanted to work a have your cake and eat it too reference in here...
Bondy
Guest
Bush I thought that was the enjoyment of it the 5 sets. I reflect at least with Federer vs Djokovic your going to get 5 sets not 3. Its both mental and physical strength which player will cramp in both mind and body or will both .
Bondy
Guest
Working Class Rugger How can you have the pinnacle of world cricket the ashes, its only a contest between two nations, isn't that exclusion ..
The Bush
Roar Guru
I do fully agree with this. People have to understand that professionalism was always going to drive things like this. Notice that the original professional sport - Association Football - is not in anyway threatened by any of the offshoots of its sport, such as futsol etc. Cricket and Tennis are just slower to adopt this as they were much later in going fully professional and are now trying to find their way in a commerical world.
Will
Guest
The reason the BBL is meaningless despite so many people going to the game and watching on TV is the same reason that The Block is meaningless. It's just popular entertainment. This isn't to say that there is an inherent problem with meaninglessness, there's just no point pretending that the result of a T20 match is as important as the combined entertainment (do you go to a game to see the Team A beat Team B in a low scoring game or do you nominally support a team but really just want to see 30 sixes get hit). The fact that millions of people watch on TV and that there are queues down the street doesn't mean that The Block makes a meaningful contribution to the construction or interior design industry, nor does T20 provide a meaningful sporting contest. For entertainment value T20 very much has it's place, as do The Block, Masterchef and Downton Abbey. Meaningless isn't a bad thing necessarily. Whilst T20 isn't my cup of tea, I certainly understand it's place in the cricket landscape, but to give it greater meaning than it ever really seeks is probably to give the format more than it deserves.