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Hits and misses in the domestic one-day cup

Roar Pro
12th October, 2017
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Roar Pro
12th October, 2017
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In case you missed it, the Australian domestic one-day cricket tournament began a few weeks ago.

It’s been rebranded the JLT Cup after its new sponsor, meaning the old sponsorship of barbecue manufacturer Matador is over, which may have been a result of all the ads for Weber during the coverage last summer.

The tournament features an array of present and future Australian cricket stars, with the best of each state (who aren’t on national duty) participating, as well as a youth team playing under the ‘Cricket Australia XI’ banner. I can only assume the XI refers to their median age.

Still, having a team of future stars is a lot more exciting than watching a bunch of has-beens making fools of themselves. If I wanted to watch that, I’d be tuning into the Footy Show.

The tournament is being given a little more credibility than previous seasons, when it was played over a ridiculously short period of time, in NSW only, to ensure there was enough time to run the other summer tournaments including the BBL, the BBL, the BBL and a few Tests.

Unlike the previous Sydney bias, this season’s matches are being played in other major cricketing centres, such as Brisbane, Perth and Drummoyne.

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That the comp is being played with so little promotion is more than a little odd, particularly considering that Cricket Australia just signed a multi-million dollar deal with Sony to broadcast Australian matches into Asia.

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You’d have thought that Sony could stretch a little further to help allow our good friends abroad watch James Faulkner bowl to Usman Khawaja, but perhaps JLT have pockets as deep as the soft tissue massages they offer.

Despite the lack of promotion, or perhaps because of it, the tournament has been intriguing. No team seems to be decidedly dominant, with the strong batting line-up of South Australia being beaten by the previously inept Tasmanians and the infantile CAXI, then beating the perennially strong NSW shortly afterwards.

For all the lack of promotion, this is still a great tournament and one I hope that is soon available to more people than the good folk of Drummoyne.

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