American sports get a bad press over here in the UK. American football's just rugby for lightweights who have to play in body armour, right? And baseball is just rounders for grown men?
Well, no, actually. All the protective stuff in American football came about because the game became so high impact, the Goverment threatened to ban it if they didn't make the protection mandatory. And if you think that Jason Robinson is good, try watching any pro running back in action. Some of them make Billy Whizz look slow.
But whatever you say about American sport, they know how to put on a spectacle. Can you imagine them fvcking up the Superbowl? Getting slightly over-excited by a stray nipple, yes, but actually organising it so that no-one turned up? Likewise the World Series - which, for the record, is named after a newspaper, not because it is the final of the world championship. Nope. When the governing bodies of US sports put on a show They. Put. On. A. Show.
All of which makes the International Cricket Council's abject fucking up of their own World Cup all the more unbelievable. How can you have a competition in the West Indies, home of huge enthusiastic crowds and equally large and enthusiastic spectators and not make a success of it? After all, this is the country where spectators have been known to refuse to pay to enter grounds, claiming that watching cricket is a human right.
Simple answer: Set ticket prices so high that the locals cannot afford them. Ban musical instruments from the ground. And bringing your own drink. In other words, ban all of the things that make cricket in the Carribean so special, then price the tickets so high that few of the people you want to be there can afford to be there. I mean, how moronic can you get? The offical logo of the competition features spectators singing, dancing and playing instruments AND YOU'VE BANNED THEM!
The ICC has long been regarded as a joke by most serious cricket fans. It exists solely to make money, irrespecitive of the damage it does to the game by over working it's star players and out pricing it's fan base. As soon as a serious issue, such as the Hair Affair or the whole shambles in Zimbabwe rears it's head, the ICC runs screaming. But to balls up your own tournament takes something really special. I do hope they are proud, because who would've thought that cricket could learn something from the Americans?
PS I don't disagree with the baseball comment?
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