’December is all yours’: Cricket’s fight to reclaim ground after footy’s premeditated November assault
Cricket has lost control of the November sporting market and is determined to fight back – but it won’t be easy.
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As AFL and rugby league continue their premeditated assaults on November, cricket bosses are discussing how they can reclaim the month they once owned.
During a meeting of Australia’s cricket leaders including state chief executives in Melbourne last week, there were informal chats about the fact that November, which used to be mostly about cricket and the Melbourne Cup, is under assault from the football codes.
One official reflected on a seven-year-old quote from a conversion with an AFL boss who quipped: “Our plan is to own 11 months of the year – we take holidays at Christmas so December is all yours.’’
Too kind. While delivered with a humorous bent, the message was more serious than sarcastic.
This week the AFL have their draft on Wednesday and Thursday, the two days before the first Test against India in Perth, and the AFLW preliminary finals on Saturday.
The AFL have also just announced their draw while the NRL have also done well to drip-feed the highlights of their draw in recent days which has guaranteed them a truckload of publicity during what could be a quiet time.
The challenge for cricket is the AFL and NRL are self-managed juggernauts which control their own destiny while the cricket schedule – tugged at by so many uncontrollable forces – is like massive jigsaw which has dozens of hands snatching at its little pieces.
Cricket seems everywhere and nowhere at the moment. It’s all around us yet somehow struggling to capture our full attention.
There’s Sheffield Shield games clashing with a highly competitive Women’s Big Bash games and white ball men’s international series against Pakistan which no-one seems to care deeply about.
Cricket will steal everyone’s thunder when the first Test against India starts in Perth and will dominate the airwaves with five Tests in seven weeks.
But the last scheduled day of cricket for the Australian men’s team is January 7- the final day of the fifth Test against India before Australia heads off on a Test tour of Sri Lanka so the window of domination is a small one.
Then it will be up to the women’s Ashes and men’s Big Bash to hold the home fort as football and tennis close in.
There are several suggestions kicking around to give the cricket season more crunch and punch.
Instead of a series of mini-launches around the country have a tub-thumping mega-launch in early November to let the world know it’s summer.
And then make it a priority to try and have a Test match early November every year and get the big stars out and about early. Maybe have an annual legends game.
But it’s not easy. The cricket system is so fragmented that Pakistan paceman Mohammad Amir played in three different teams in three different competitions in a week earlier this year.
Welcome to modern cricket, the sport which is all over the place in more ways than one.
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Originally published as ’December is all yours’: Cricket’s fight to reclaim ground after footy’s premeditated November assault
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