Cricket Australia's double blunder

Not only that- they have scheduled the BBL finals against the opening round of the AFLW. This will definitely affect their Melbourne ratings. They should have finished the BBL on the long weekend, then gone to the International circus games.

Sutherland is now talking of extending the BBL to a 55-game series + finals, but is cagey as to how much longer the tournament will go for. Sadly Cricket Australia are listening to the boffins at Ch10, who don't give a toss about cricket but love the ratings and want more BBL cricket to show. I agree that by mid-January, I am burned out from the BBL and get really selective as to which games to watch. Usually just watch for 20-minutes and turn onto something else or switch off the tv altogether. The biggest problem is all the tv stations just want to show cricket that rates in the prime time Summer holidays, ie: beginning of December to end of January but its impossible to cram all three formats of local cricket PLUS the international stuff in that 8½ weeks. To appease the money men, CA have already totally stuffed up the 50-over local (ING/MMC) and split the Sheffield Shield right out of the prime time. So the question is, do you keep cricket for the cricket fans or looking from their angle of CA they are following the money so do you go for the gold and keep all forms of cricket going with the spoils? Its a difficult question, to be sure. CA is doing something for the rusted on cricket tragics like me, in that they show non-televised matches on their website for free.

I'm not for T10 at all but I love T20. I grew up in the 1950's when Test cricket was boring - 200 runs in a day. Teams played for draws. For some reason I still followed it and liked it. But I love the way cricket has evolved into an aggressive game. With the right marketing T20 could make cricket truly international - in 50 years the Yanks and Europeans and Africans and Asians could all get to feel the skill and excitement of cricket. (After watching a morning session of a Test match between Australia and Pakistan, a blockathon, a US President (Truman I think) asked "When does the game begin?" ) Yes , cricket was excruciatingly boring in the 1950's. Thank God for its evolution. Viva T20!

Would it be poetic justice? Really? Maybe ask the 30,000 or so people who have tickets for this game, of which I am one. I'd rather a clear sky so I can watch the game, not rain so CA can get their comeuppance. Gracious me...

Couldn't you make that revenue out of a more expanded BBL-esque domestic comp though?

Some countries make a lot of revenue from International T20s. Tests lose money in NZ; we need T20Is to have money for junior and provincial cricket

that would be perfect, T20I's are usually a fizzer anyway and who really cares about a standalone T20 series?

And, not only do they water down the PM's XI game to a slap and giggle T20, but they schedule it against a BBL semi final. As they say, you can't put brains in statues.

Crazy could be construed as both good and bad. Its a normal human instinct to deny an idea when first confronted by it. Remember when England toured in 06/07 and there was stand alone almost comedic 20/20 match between Australia and England at the SCG? At that stage, who could have possibly envisaged a domestic T20 competition comprising of city only franchises where certain members of the team hold regular "blue collar jobs" all the while earning in excess of $500,000 for an overseas comp(IPL)? Not to mention this domestic T20 comp outdoes many test matches in terms of crowd attendance! It is indeed a crazy world.

Look Paul I agree, T10 is ludicrous but then again so is a proposed 2 game increase to the already jam packed BBL comp. Basically, lunacy will be ignored if revenue meets the desired figure. Which by the way is never enough. Cricket is now a fully fledged ruthless business and and with that, increasing profits must be the goal. Cricket evolution is a beast that eventually consumes itself in the face of greed for the dollar. Odi's were all the rage at one stage, they got increasingly popular and fans wanted more and more. Authorities and officials saw an opportunity to get aboard the gravy train and flooded the market with the in demand product. Unfortunately the masses eventually got tired of the burgeoning product and demand began to dwindle. Along came 20/20 and with it new competition as an alternative to the stale odi format. 20/20 became the new rage and witnessed growing demand and revenue even greater than the odi revolution. However we now sit at the interesting junction of "too much of a good thing is bad" as witnessed in the previous odi development. Evidence of this is the decrease in numbers of both ground attendances and tv viewers of both the IPL and BBL (our two main T20 influenced comps). So as it stands, oneday cricket feasted on test cricket, T20 cricket is feasting on odi's and we await for the next format to feast on 20/20. All in the name of the almighty dollar!

This has been floated before but it just makes more and more sense to keep T20's as a domestic competition only with no internationals int his format played. Most international T20 teams don't include their best players anyway (except for maybe the WC). This to me seems the best way to simplify scheduling but still deliver T20 cricket for the fans while also delivering much needed money to national cricket associations.

There was a time where you'd laugh at something like T10, but then I'm sure we were all sceptical of T20 when it started. It's sad though, how can you build any tradition, history and intrigue when the sport just keeps changing all the time.

Some crazy thoughts there Ozbatla but I certainly could see T10 becoming a thing. I'm more a traditionalist but I really enjoy T20 so I wouldn't call it garbage. ODIs are certainly losing their appeal outside of the WC,I think we will continue to see less of them. I'm also amazed how much interest is being lost in test cricket by traditional fans,let alone attracting new ones. Some are still watching at this point but it's a concern how little interest is being taken in the onfield happenings in comparison to interest in a lot of secondary things like pitches and selection.

sorry Ozi, but T10 is bordering on the ludicrous in terms of a cricket game. Not living in the southern states, I don't understand how someone can pay out a lot of hard earned to go to a T20, let alone a T10. I agree about this cricket revolution being all about money. The CA Board is made up of guys who are only interested in the bottom line, which wouldn't be a problem if the game was being improved at grass roots levels. It isn't so the illness as you call it, continues.

I will tell you how they will eventually revamp this crammed schedule - can odi cricket, reduce the overflowing influx of T20 garbage, and introduce the new wonder of world cricket... T10!!! It has already been trialled in the West Indies. In this ever increasing frenetic world where more and more people are becoming time poor, T10 might not be as laughable as some may think. More money, less cricket. More loud music and fireworks, less applause and acknowledgement. Call me a traditionalist but the cricketing revolution underway is not healthy for its overall balance. Money supercedes integrity but it wont cure illness.

I get sad every time I see the videos pop up on Facebook of the old ING or Mec Mutual Cup. Sunday all day primetime games, International Players going against each other and seasoned state cricketers playing to try and win the comp (rather than a glorified development carnival). The new set up is a joke, it made complete sense having the one day game on the weekend following the shield game, everyone knew the set up as well and crowd numbers were good. BBL is a fantastic comp but getting too drawn out, the extra couple of weeks this year I honestly starting tuning out as it was mundane. Need to have it all wrapped up a couple of weeks earlier, even if it means more double headers.

At some point CA needs to decide how it's going to manage the 3 forms of cricket which it's trying to cram into 5 months. The domestic ODI series is a farce which might, in part explain why our recent international results have been poor. There was no 4 day cricket one the Tests started and now we have this debacle. It surely can't be that hard to get the scheduling right. Sadly though, Sutherland and his band of merry men probably think there's no problems, the same as they think there are no problems with communication between selectors and players. Sorry CA, but you've got your head in the sand..... again

Yeah this is unbelievably dumb. CA's scheduling has been a mess ever since the BBL started, though.